The collection of more than 40 photographs that can be seen these days at the hotel es Marés in Formentera, until July 3, are the result of chance. The author, Bruce Gartell, captured them between 1970 and 1975 with a Rolleiflex that was given to him along with a few reels of 6×6 slides. He admits that he has never considered these images to be of interest and that he even consulted a photographer friend, some years ago, who thought they were not worth being exhibited in public.
A journey through the time and light of Formentera in the seventies / carmelo convalia
But recently Pamela Spitz, photographer and art director, came across Gartell’s treasure. It was a suitcase with all those slides hidden and forgotten until now.
In this coincidence comes together that Pamela belongs to the second generation, since her mother and Gartell knew each other. Her idea is to develop a more ambitious project, ‘The light of time’, whose first chapter is this exhibition.
Bruce is a resident of es Cap de Barbaria who has been living in Formentera since 1967 and has been part, along with his brother Toni, of the jazz group in the square that has been playing for years in this public space.
When Pamela came across that locked suitcase and opened it, a shiver ran through her. She realized that the slides were damaged by damp and mildew, but she immediately saw that Bruce’s look, 50 years ago, was worth it, as it conveyed the atmosphere of her parents’ generation in an idyllic Fomentera discovered by young people now in their eighties.
The contents of Bruce’s suitcase, shown in this exhibition, is the result of a selection of moldy images, burned by time and that in their apparent imperfections hide that light passed by the patina of time that give it a unique character and recover some glimpses of the young people who 50 years ago discovered what they considered paradise and now another generation tries to make sense in search of answers.
Bruce admits that he is between surprised and excited because, after so many years, he himself is rediscovering himself in this unsought adventure that like his life has allowed him to sail through time but always with his eyes fixed on this island where he has lived ever since.
‘The Light of Time’ is the opportunity to breathe the atmosphere of the golden age that became myth and legend through images that hide much more than what they show. But we must not forget that this is only the first chapter of Pamela Spitz’s project to dig into the memory of her parents’ generation through their hidden photos.