'Every click was special'

Alberto Garca Alix stands in front of a self portrait at the ongoing Beijing exhibition. Xie Yu / For China Daily

Back in 1993, while on an assignment in Cuba, Alberto Garca Alix, one of Europe's most acclaimed photographers, came across a fortune teller at an outdoor market, who told him he had been born in China in a previous life.

The 54-year-old photographer, who did not make much of it then, recalled that encounter when he got a chance to work in Beijing in 2007.

"I stayed in Beijing for six months and I just loved the city," he says. "The streets, the ambience, and the people - everything in the city fascinated me."

He went out with his camera everyday and examined the pictures he took at night. "It felt like hunting. It was a shame to return home without anything," he recalls.

"I love the winter months of December, January and February in Beijing, especially the scene after a snowfall. The light is so beautiful, like sunset," he adds.

"I have always liked the courtyard, the hutong and the outskirts."

Although the Spaniard became busy with his work - taking pictures and holding exhibitions - on his return home, the pull of Beijing brought him back to the city.

An ongoing exhibition, Alberto Garca Alix - From Where There is No Return, at Beijing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), located in the capital's 798 art district, features 80 of his works spanning more than three decades.

First shown in Madrid, it includes photographs from the mid-1970s, shot in 35mm format, to his life in Madrid in the early 1980s, and later in Paris and Beijing.

"The (idea of the) exhibition was born when I lived in Beijing. It is a long journey of my life, very personal," he said recently at the opening.

"Those pictures were formed not by my camera but in my head. Every click of the button was special. I just observed the city and suddenly got what I wanted."

The photographer says he also made a lot of friends in Beijing, including some indie rockers who later became his models - like the members of the band, Joyside.

"We met in a bar. I watched their performance and their passion reminded me of youngsters in New York City or Paris.

"We didn't know each other's language, but still made a connection."

The exhibition includes Garca Alix's private collection of vintage prints on the period of enormous change in Spain, both politically and culturally, titled Beneath the Lights of the Mud Walls.

But he insists the exhibition is not a nostalgic journey but more a story told through photos. A 40-minute video purports to enhance audience understanding of the displays.

Explaining the self-portraits in the collection, the photographer says, "I entered the world of photography by accident when I was 20. I had no money for models. So I took pictures of myself in front of the mirror. Gradually, it became a habit.

One the foremost photographers to emerge from Spain's La Movida, the post-Franco era of free expression, Garca Alix uses his documentary approach to capture the atmosphere of 1980s Madrid and beyond and is particularly partial to black-and-white pictures.

In 1999, he received the prestigious National Award of Photography of Spain, an honor he credits to his restless spirit.

"I studied law in university which I didn't like at all. I left home early to make a living. Like other young men, I was restless and confused. I have a lot of tattoos. The only person who could force me to sit down was the policeman," he says.

"Although the way I look at the world has changed dramatically from the time I was 20 to when I was 50," Garca Alix says, "I remain a kid inside, dreaming and being curious. That's what keeps my camera alive."

The artist plans to do a short movie on his life in Beijing and other places that have inspired him over the past 30 years.

But "I will only show it to those who are really interested in watching it," he adds.

The exhibition will run until Nov 12.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/30/2010 page11)