Hello there, and welcome to the second Limen dispatch 👋

I love street photography because it carries with it the unknown of what will happen when you move out of your doorstep. You never know what you will experience, the people you will meet, or the scenes that unfold in front of your camera. It’s my way of getting out of my place and my comfort zone.

This month I experimented with using flash and kept pushing beyond the “fly on the wall” approach, interacting more with the people on the street. I’ve been interacting with people during my wandering in Vietnam and really enjoyed it, while back home I find it more challenging, probably because of my assumption that the people here are less friendly and open to strangers. But luckily that’s not the case, and going out in the last few weeks reminded me of that.

While playing with flash around Port Vell with a group of friends during a photowalk, my eyes were attracted by a person stretching his arms and wrists on the dock.

At first I thought he was a homeless person, that stereotypical imagery with big bags around, feeding seagulls. But when I approached him, reality was different. I sat down with him and we had the deepest conversation about life and death.

I was lucky enough to have been recording the POV, so I could have a testimony of that moment with me and listen again to that magical conversation. Here you can listen to it, it’s in Spanish.

What started as a random encounter turned into a deeper connection that will probably go on for the time being.

Street photography is not only about the people, though, it’s also about the places. Especially when you go out in your own city, you have the chance to get deeper with an area or a neighborhood. I’ve always been open about the difficulty of getting out in Barcelona compared to when I travel, but I set out to break that pattern this year.

And one of the best ways so far has been joining photowalks and workshops. In particular, I took part in the night street photography workshop with Gustavo Minas and Alexandre Escola. This brought me to explore El Raval, a quite rough area here in Barcelona, in a safe space with fellow street photographers. It also helped me get to know new people in the city, as well as Instagram peeps that I had only met virtually.

It was fun roaming around late at night, entering bars and dark alleys, and gaining the confidence to return to the area by myself. I think I’ve never stayed out that late doing photography till now.

That said, before saying goodbye, I’ll anticipate that November might bring some exciting news — please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Till next time!

— M