Speaking on themes of isolation and solitude in his “Movement” series, photographer Gabriel Adda intentionally blurs his passing subjects.
In intentionally blurring subjects, photographer Gabriel Adda captures a dizzying feeling of motion in his “Movement” series. Using a soft colour palette, the Uruguayan photographer captures his passing subjects suspended in a chaotic, yet a poetic moment, from school children crossing the road to a figure passing by on rollerblades.
Adda’s “Movement” series is more than simply a reproduction of reality, but rather merges strong feelings of urban isolation and universal solitude through his technique. In the photos, Adda fades the environment and isolates his human subjects from their frenetic urban surroundings, further emphasizing the sensation of loneliness. Through the spiral blurring, the faces and identity of the moving individuals are also stripped, resulting in anonymous expressions that exude pain and suffering.
Shot over four years, “Movement” was conceived when Adda was experimenting with his own long exposure techniques during the daytime. The technical problem, however, was an excess of light appearing in the final product, with ghostly humans appearing in his landscape photos. “One particular day, I was with my camera and the ND filters in a car,” Adda explains. “I was in motion, the people outside as well and almost by accident, trying to follow the subjects during the long exposure, I came across these images. I discovered landscapes disappearing and people turning into monsters.”
To Adda’s curator Gimena Pino, “Movement” tells the tale of loneliness and its place within human nature. “In some instances, the weather across the individual emphasizes the feeling of solitude,” she states. “Indeed, in some images it seems as if the faceless people are having to push against their environment, moving through the world as though they are moving through a thick fog or swamp.”
Adda himself, however, maintains that the series speak to something much broader. “People,” he says. “People and their environment.” Indeed, what started as a simple experimentation in technique for Adda quickly began to take on an entirely new meaning as the project developed. “I realized that the oneiric look, that blurry and ghostly look of my pictures was pretty close to the way I was feeling back then,” Adda continues. “I understood what I was really doing just after taking a lot of pictures.”
“I just want viewers to feel something,” Adda admits. “That’s what it’s all about, making somebody feel something when they come across a picture that you took. You are affecting them. That’s good enough for me.”
Gabriel Adda’s “Movement” was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 5DSR.
Words by Braeden Alexander – Explore Adda’s work on Instagram.
