Los tamarindos de La Concha [La Concha’s Tamarinds] is the continuation of photographer Ricardo Cases's urban exploration, which began in 2018 in the city of Valencia and was published in 2023 under the title El ficus del Parterre [El Parterre’s Ficus]. These brief photographic essays are now joined by those carried out in San Sebastián in 2024, following an artist residency proposed by Kutxa Fundazioa.

Los tamarindos de La Concha consists of five fanzines, each dedicated to one of his photographic series created in San Sebastián. The production of these fanzines reflects an editorial practice that Cases engages in daily in his local area. His routine of exploration and photography, this time in an unfamiliar urban environment, is swiftly followed by an editing and publishing process.

Presented as brief essays, these photographs capture Cases’s emotional response to the stimuli he encounters by chance in the city, through which he explores new compositional approaches. The city acts as a catalyst, offering fertile ground to push the boundaries of the image and play with the concept of estrangement, while avoiding a passive, sterile portrayal. He also seeks to address local issues, proposing symbols that explore the nature and identity of those who inhabit the landscape.

Born in Orihuela (Spain) in 1971, Ricardo Cases holds a BA in Information Sciences from the University of the Basque Country (Spain). In 2006 he joined the Blank Paper photography collective. He has published several photobooks: Belleza de barrio (2008), La caza del lobo congelado (2009), Paloma al aire (2011), El porqué de las naranjas (MACK, 2014), El blanco (Dalpine, 2016), Sol (Dalpine, 2017), Estudio elemental del Levante (Dalpine, 2020), Parques infantiles (Dalpine, 2021) and TOT (Dalpine, 2022).

“His photographic work focuses on the yearnings of the human being, the deep and universal longings of the citizen of the mass society, fighting against banality in an effort to transcend, confronting his own dignity with a medium always untrustworthy. To this end, he turns his eye to expressions of contemporary folklore, looping for the truth of the Spaniard: a townsman who is forced to live in the city, in modernity. Beyond a pop appearance —distant and cynical— he is interested in what is human and anthropological. Beyond the social and documentary, he searches for the truthful and universal pulsations beating beneath the banal surface —often kitsch and lacking glamour— of contemporary Spain.” (Luis López Navarro).

Published by Dalpine / Kutxa Fundazioa
Hardcover slipcase with folder & 5 fanzines
180 pages
297 x 210 mm
ISBN 9788409647668