Urban Impressions: A Collection of Photographs by Pedro Correa

Photography is Pedro Correa’s (b. 1977, Spanish) way of attesting to the city’s attraction: “All my pictures are love songs to the city. Not any particular one, but rather the universal idea of a city. Photos that depict the mix of various cultures, people bumping into each other, colors, energy, things happening on every corner…”

Inspired by the art of Saul Leiter and how he was able to paint with reality through the light in his photography and Correa started pursuing those similar qualities in his photographs. Influenced by his impressionistic painting background, his style was born by injecting the emotions of impressionism into the “decisive moment” of photography. In other words: shooting with one eye of an impressionistic painter and one eye of an urban image hunter. Further to that idea, He never modifies elements of a picture, merges different images or asks people to pose. There is in his opinion “no need to force beauty; it is already out there.” Pedro Correa comes so close that names become irrelevant. “My migration, my search, my work, and my eye have evolved beyond the surface and have moved to works aimed at the spirit of the global, nameless, and placeless city. It’s my perception of the city that I want to show, the feeling rather than an actual picture.”

Correa never manipulates his photographs, simply framing real moments using clever, layered compositions. He never erases parts, detour, copy-paste or adds layers. Those layers are already in the image. He works a lot with reflection and superimposition but using reality itself, things that are there that exist, such as shades, reflections, grain, dust, and the texture in general. Again the things that often go unnoticed. The attention to light, reflections – veils cast over reality- soon make clear what Pedro Correa seeks to express in his photography.

Correa received a degree in oil painting and comic art from the Brussels Royal Academy of Arts. Correa was the son of an artist painter and a teacher with a passion for travel. While growing up, he lived in Avignon (France), Madrid and Barcelona and finally moved to Brussels where he stayed for a long time.

“I like to underline what is not obvious, what would be worth getting a bit more attention. There’s beauty to be found everywhere, even in the things that you might consider ugly at first. This doesn’t require the manipulation of reality. It is capturing a specific moment that is not constructed but which is just there. To me, that can only be transmitted through impressionism, by adding feeling to the decisive moment. that way you get a story in a single image, something of a mystery.” – Pedro Correa