MANUEL A. ELÍAS

These images are from Saint-Malo, a town located in France’s Brittany region. Before arriving, I delved into its history and quirks, uncovering fascinating ties to the sea that shaped its culture and character. When you visit that town, you’ll find elements that hint at its intimate connection with the sea. So, I tried to explore that idea the first afternoon and evening there, imagining as if it was an assignment. Actually, I was in Saint-Malo because it was the location for a photography workshop I signed up for.

I begin to walk around the intra-muros part of the old city, I got intrigued by its history but the sea was what hypnotized the most. Taking some images and soaking in the atmosphere, my attention redirected towards the noticeable changes with the light, the color, the sound… my perception couldn’t ignore those first impression I was intuitively registering in the back of my mind.

A couple of days passed and meanwhile I kept researching about what to photograph, I stumbled upon a tide timetable. It struck me — Am I like the tides, constantly ebbing and flowing? It was a eureka moment, one of those rare instances that make you feel you are on the right track.

Then, my initial assignment-want-to-be approach flipped into a project with more meaning and layers that I needed to explore. I was on the zone, spacing out trying to decipher those intricate visual metaphors to delve deeper within myself and gain a deeper understanding as well. At the end, that timetable was the key that led me to understand and make sense of all those changes that impressed me when walking outside during the first days.

The most visible aspect that captured my attention was the tides, as I observed them, it became very familiar to interpret them as a projection of the constant internal pendulum I experience with thoughts, emotions, feelings, and affections. They resemble the constant cycles I experience internally, from one extreme to another. All what avoid a one-dimensional existence, but rather a complex, complicated, sometimes bearable, and sometimes unbearable one.

Going from one extreme to another, from euphoria to desolation, from exhaustion to vitality, from nostalgia to enthusiasm. Like when, on one hand, I can control tears of anger, but on the other hand, I notice how they burst forth without me realizing when nostalgia floods me.

With this project, I explored this dance that we are all obliged to dance in. When I see the images and listen to the murmurs they have among them, I do try to  reflect on how they make me feel. Perhaps, ultimately, this is a way to rediscover a story about perseverance, resilience, and the quest for moving forward in spite what is going on inside or outside.

How different can the same place feel? What turmoil is disguised behind a face with much or little expression? On the outside, all might look the same, but inside, it's never identical. 

That same carousel looked so elegant and majestic in the morning, yet so vividly colorful and chaotic at night. I came to remember nothing stays the same; change is the only constant that does not change.