CV of Jose Maria LAMO DE ESPINOSA MICHELS DE CHAMPOURCIN

Born in 1953, my relationship with photography began in 1973. It was an intimate, personal relationship until the end of 2021, when I decided to leave the environment of my computer, my camera, my screen by making my work known.

So, in May 2022, my first group exhibition
was to take place in Madrid. A mild heart attack on April 23, just 12 days before the exhibition, sent me to the hospital for three days during which the internal debate consumed many hours. Hours in which the sight of the round clock, white with black hands, on a light gray wall helped me focus on what was really important by helping me make the decision. Yes, I was going to celebrate the exhibition.

And it was the right decision, a unique experience and
suggestive that encouraged me to continue on the path I had started.
Since then there have been four further group exhibitions and one solo exhibition (Sept 2023).

THOUGHTS

Like every human being, I am an accumulation
of experiences,

Complex experiences, mixing in my case the facets of son, father, husband, friend, economist, half-lawyer, half-entrepreneur, cook, photographer and.... creative?
Artist? Well yes... artist. I only realized that recently.

I like geometry, architecture, reflections and
transparencies, the city and its streets, its people. I love nature, the big and the small, the macro. Balance and imbalance.

I have always been a voyeur, an observer. I like
to look, to see, to find something beautiful,
harmonious, ugly, shocking, soft, rough, surprising.
Something that catches my attention. A shape, a rhythm, a contrast.

Seeing what no one sees is an art, a craft, a
passion, a hobby, an illusion. Looking for what is in front of us but no one sees... it is an art. Highlighting an unimportant image, which goes unnoticed, is an art. This is what I pursue using photography.

They say that photography is a true reflection of reality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Perhaps the photography used for scientific or technical purposes and still.

Most of the time, no. There are always factors that change the image by creating a new reality, a new world, as the painter and the sculptor do.

Painting and photography tell realities using different paths, techniques, points of view. I have always liked the second one. And when you have the piece in front of you, you realize that you have been moved like a child while you produce the piece. Your relationship with it is like a game. Sometimes with surprises.

Recently, due to a problem in my right eye, I like to analyze, to show, the visual deformations, how we think we see things as they are when we actually perceive a reality reprocessed by our eyes, our brains, our subjectivity and our means, instruments that allow us to reach this perception.

And why black and white in a world full of
colors?

"When you photograph a person in color,
you photograph his clothes, when you
made in black and white, you photograph his soul
(TED GRANT)"

In black and white the idea behind the image is better
appreciated. Color generates a lot of noise, adding sometimes superfluous information, disrupting, diverting attention. Nevertheless, it is sometimes essential, as in advertising.

In my view, black and white photography is to painting as poetry is to literature. It is the summary, the extract, the synthesis.

EXHIBITIONS

2022 BADA MADRID (Madrid, May, collective)

2023 ARTIST 360o (Madrid, February, collective)
GALERIA LANZA (Madrid, May, collective)
GALERIA LANZA (Madrid, September, individual)
VAMOS CAFE (Stuttgart, October, collective).
ARTE DOMAIN (Miami, December, collective)

2024

GALERIA LANZA (Madrid, January, collective)
FRENCH ARTISTS' FAIR (Paris, February)
GALERIA LANZA (Madrid, March, collective)

FAIM ART 2024 (Madrid, collective with
MICHELS DE CHAMPOURCIN GALLERY)

MENTION

2024 Mention for the photo “LA CONVERSATION” in the Salon des Artistes Français 2024.