Xavier Ribas

Xavier Ribas is a photographer, senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, and visiting lecturer at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. He studied Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona and Documentary Photography at the Newport School of Art and Design. His photographic work investigates contested sites, histories and memories. His earlier works looked at peripheral spaces and geographies of abandonment in photographic series such as Sundays (1998), Sanctuary (1998-2002)and Habitus (2007). His recent works grouped under the title of Concrete Geographies (2003-2009) take the form of large photographic grids, looking at temporary settlements, sites of corporate urban development and exclusion, and border territories.

Ribas has been involved in many international exhibitions and his work is represented in major public and private collections. He has received awards, commissions and fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2012-2015), the International Photography Research Network (2006), Commande Publique du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Centre National des Arts Plastiques (2006), among others. 

I wanted to use his work for my interspersion because i like the idea of the identity of a place can change due to abandonment. The color pallet of his images are very interesting he uses muted tones to give the effect of life being lost in abandonment. His work appeals to me because it almost paints abandonment in a more beautiful way because its not just dark and dingy, it shows how life can circulate around the unwanted and grow upon it to create beautiful images