22 / Le Rhône / Daniel Robles

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Chambre 22

Thème : Arles et la Peinture

« Le Rhône »

My project for the Calendal hotel is based on images of the Rhône River, its presence, and the way its endless changes give us an indication of the way time becomes tangible.
I use silver-film cameras as it allows me to achieve colors in a way that is not feasible with digital cameras.
The panoramic format of my images allows spaces to be captured, thus offering the viewer a long journey within my images. My images are focused on the theme of painting. I take photos of views that the artists who lived in Arles in the previous centuries were able to contemplate. This is why the Rhône River is a central character as its presence defines the lines that identify this city.

The Central Valleys of Oaxaca, where I spent my childhood, hover at the clash of the two great sierras of the country of Mexico. My people, the descendants of the ancient Zapotec regime, find ourselves suspended at 1555 meters above sea level, between earth and heaven, life and death, shadow and light. In my career to date, as a Zapotec-Chinantec photographer, I have danced in the middle of this intersection of life and death, of color and discoloration, of darkness and light, seeking to speak to the unity of the two, in spite of their seeming contrast.
As a photographer, I strive each day to show life’s beauty and drama. Rather than just making a daily register of the superficial or external changes in the environment, I seek to capture the emotion of particular moments, of certain lights.
I see life as a dynamic and changing energy; and that’s why my hope is that my photographs will serve as a time capsule, transmitting a clear and timeless message to any person that might observe them.