BOAS NOITES
BOAS NOITES
CREDITS
In the rural villages of the Spanish region of Galicia, Jesús Madriñán (1984, Spain) photographed young party-goers as they pause from the revelry for a portrait. The flash of Madriñán’s camera draws an uncommon amount of light into scenes often shrouded in darkness, and gives an air of an interrupted experience. Temporarily removed from the nightlife surrounding them, the teenagers of Boas Noites (Good Night) express complex and varying emotions: some look like they’re trying to seduce someone, while others look like they’ve given up all hope and just want to call it a night.
By portraying these young individuals in a solemn, straight-forward way, while the party continues behind them and becomes a mere backdrop, the photographer revitalizes classical portrait techniques. The calmness of a studio is substituted by the noisy nightclub. The un-idealized way in which Madriñán reveals youth, slightly glowing with a layer of sweat and dishevelled from dancing, is strengthened by his images of Galicia’s nature, also shot at night. These landscapes serve as a high contrast escape from the artificial nightclub environment, while reflecting the same ‘caught in the wild’ naturalistic representation of the teenagers’ nightlife.
Boas Noites is also published as a book by Fabuglatorio and can be purchased online.
