| The photographs
of Fran Herbello constitute a reply to what he considers
the relentless harassment of digital society, and despite
the fact that his images are usually taken to be digital,
they are a product of direct intervention over the bodies.
Clearly a sculptural work of nature which precisely demonstrates
an interest in working in contact with real objects,
creating ephemeral contributions void of meaning in themselves
only dreamed up and executed so as to give center-stage
to photographs. Obviously it is pointless trying to label
them within a specific art form; they are sculptures
and photographs at the same time, as is the case with
a great part of modern day sculpture. Photography doesn’t
only replace intervention, but it also increases the
credibility of the result that it stimulates due to the
role of notarial testimony usually attributed to the
photographic medium. Fran takes good advantage of this;
make it more acute by his use of black and white and
his choice of precise photographic variables. As a result,
fragmented bodies are as real as the unusual.
This work can be framed in the context of questioning
its photographic voracity, which postmodern formulations
convert into a recurring objective. These days the
eruption of the digital image is creating a simulation
whereby the presumed truthfulness of the medium is
beginning to be doubted in a social context. Hence
these images also lead to a questioning of the interest
in the difference between analogue and numeric images,
and this is what appears to me to be really interesting.
Little does it matter if the scar in the image of the
backs was created by Photoshop, by loctite glue or
as a result of the search for a person who possessed
such a scar in real life. What matters, is not the
process followed but the result obtained and the underlying
concept.
The unreal situation suggested by many of his images
remind us of the classic surrealist photographs. The
resulting comparison between “dorse/corso” (“Back/Corset”)
and the well known “violon d’Ingres by
Man Ray in 1924 is inevitable. In the same way, “Pie/Zapato” (Foot/Shoe)
reminds us of lonely Metropolitan created by Herbert
Bayer in 1932, in which instead of laces coming out
of the skin eyes appear in the palm of the hand, a
product of photo montage which in those days was frequently
used by artist linked to the historic vanguard who
used photography and which in present day circumstances
has obviously fallen into disuse. But the relation
between these two paradigmatic photographers but can
be extended to the surreal movement in general noting
that the world of Margritte is also present in these
photographs. The universe of Joan Brossa and that of
the contemporary Chema Madoz also bear a resemblance
in many ways to the work of Fran Herbello. However
the body-centered theme, one of the obsessions of contemporary
artists, and the strength of the treatment give it
a specific personality quite different from the poetic
images of Madoz.
The simulated aggression in the images contrast with
the harmony of the formal composition to which he pays
careful attention. In this way the tangible part of
the intervention over the body is increased along with
its strength. The photographic options that characterize
them such as the simplicity of the shots, their central
and frontal character, their symmetry, the diffused
lighting and the black backgrounds allow them to suggest
a realism not unlike scientific documentary photography.
However in spite of the simulated aggression with which
the body has been treated this work is totally different
from that of artists who on occasions have mutilated
or transformed their bodies by way of surgical interventions
as is the case with Orlan. These works of art are not
only based on conception of a different nature, but
also the role of the photograph is different; the simple
documentation of intervention. In spite of the young
age of the author and the fact that it is his first
piece of work ‘ A Imagen y semejanza” (In
Image and Resemblance) is composed of thirty or so
images of extraordinary coherence in themselves and
a visual resolution which leaves no one unaffected.
This is an artist well worth keeping an eye on.
Manuel Sendon
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