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Juan Rodríguez Morales

Juan Rodríguez Morales was born in Madrid in 1980. In 2003, he completed his studies in Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Shortly thereafter, he began studying photography at the Popular University of Alcobendas (Madrid). From the outset, he was interested in documentary photography and street photography. In 2011, he participated in a photography workshop with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb. After this workshop, his vision of photography changed.
In 2013, he was selected to participate in PhotoEspaña Descubrimientos with his work “Una gran ciudad” (A Great City). He has been part of the collective project ‘Contemporáneos’ (Contemporaries), participating in various group exhibitions and in the book “Contemporáneos” published by La fábrica in 2015. With this collective, he has organized several group exhibitions, including those held at Segovia Foto, Imaginaria, and the PhotoEspaña Off Festival in 2016.
Individually, he has been selected as a finalist in various festivals focused on documentary and street photography, including Eyeshot, Miami Street Photography Festival, Aussie Street Photo Festival, Brussels Street Photo Festival and Encontros da Imagem.
His work has been published in digital and print media, including Clavoardiendo, AYE Magazine, PhotoArt Magazine, Dodho Magazine, The Hidden Photo, F-STOP Magazine, Eyeshot Street Photography Magazine, Positive Magazine, Fraction Magazine, Docu Magazine, Float Magazine, DocuStreet Magazine, Ain’t Bad Magazine, Color Tag Magazine, Körper Magazine, and Broad Magazine, Caption Magazine, Street Photography Magazine, About Photography, Frayme Magazine.
In 2023, he published his first book, entitled Ghost World, with the publisher Calma y Sosiego.
 

Project Statement

As a photographer, I have always been interested in documentary photography and street photography. Both have gone hand in hand since the beginnings of photography and constitute the most democratic form of photography that exists. All you need is a camera, to go out onto the street and document everything around you. From the beginning, I have always been interested in subjects related to everyday life and even those that are seemingly trivial or unimportant. Whether it is life in asuburban town in my project “Ghost World” or what happens on a fair day in “Fair Day,” I am interested in things we can identify with and that at the same time have a hidden side that we rarely perceive. In Fair Day, I try to bring out that hidden side of the fair. On the one hand, it is colorful and cheerful, but on the other, it is a melancholic and nostalgic place. This project follows in the footsteps of great color photographers such as Alex Webb, Stephen Shore, and William Eggleston. Their way of understanding street and documentary photography as an activity full of poetry has profoundly influenced my work, and their mark is reflected in one way or another in my photographs.
The title of the project in English is no coincidence. “Fair day” can be translated as “fair day” but also as “good day.” Going to the fair is synonymous with sharing moments of fun among colorful attractions and candy stands. For a week, the routine of daily life comes to a halt to make way for Ferris wheels and roller coasters, greasy food stands, colorful vendors, and cotton candy. Couples with young children come to enjoy the attractions and perhaps buy a cheap toy. At the same time, teenagers move from one place to another looking for that girl or boy they like so much and whom they hope to find next to the bumper cars. Everything seems different at the fair and, at the same time, it is the same. The teenagers who kiss today on the Ferris wheel will tomorrow take their children for a ride at a fair very similar to the one of their youth. The fair is a world unto itself that we have all inhabited at some point and that, in a way, encapsulates what life is all about.
It is a place full of color and light where you can enjoy yourself and relax, but it is also a space where melancholy and nostalgia are very present, reminding us that in a few days the fair will move on to another city, leaving us with the company of our daily routine.
Since 2014 I have traveled through the fairs of several Spanish cities trying to capture with my camera this fair spirit, on the one hand, so full of color and life, and on the other hand, so full of nostalgia.

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