Ruven Afanador

"Mil Besos"

OCTOBER 29th - DECEMBER 12th,  2009

Monday – Saturday 10am-5pm

Book available:
Mil Besos, Ruven Afanador, published by Rizzoli, $75.00

Throckmorton Fine Art is pleased to offer an exhibition of recent work by the accomplished photographer, Ruven Afanador. The images shown are of women who practice flamenco in Spain. The black-and-white photographs are stark, having been shot under the bright sunlight of the countryside of Andalusia. “Gritty and inky”—to use the expression of John Galliano—bodies and faces are set against an austere landscape and incandescent walls. Afanador creates an intricate choreography of poses and gestures that embody the passionate song and dance of flamenco. The photographs bristle. They also challenge conventional definitions of grace and gender, by presenting surprising images of feminine strength.

Rizzoli is publishing an extended set of the photographs in a lavish book entitled Mil Besos (Spanish for a thousand kisses). The hardcover book has 179 photographs, an introduction by John Galliano, and commentary by noted women in fashion. The photographs were taken during several sojourns to Andalusia. Photographs of older and more traditional dancers are joined with images of younger women who today infuse flamenco with other musical traditions.

Afanador persuaded the women to wear theatrical black makeup, an inspiration from Italian Neo-Realism. And the women wear an entirely black wardrobe. The crossing of taut faces and bodies, with costume and dance, and the harshness of the remote, southwestern corner of Spain create an extravagant but elegant expression of beauty. Afanador’s work has appeared in the world’s leading fashion, celebrity, and portrait magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Tatler, and the Spanish, French, German, and Japanese editions of Vogue. Afanador’s photographs have also been widely exhibited, including most recently, an outdoor installation of 60 large-format images on the Avenida de la Constitución, the main thoroughfare of Seville.