The Muralla Roja apartment complex is one of the most iconic pieces of Spanish architecture. Over the years, Spanish photographer Andrés Gallardo Albajar visited this place to photograph it repeatedly. He took photographs from various angles to get an ample vision of the manifold lines, shapes, and colours. He expanded his approach in his project, Urban Geometry, was surprised by Korean Schools in Seoul and photographed a small village in Spain.

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Muralla Roja is a residential complex built in 1973, comprising many individual apartments, some used by Airbnb rentals. There were too many visitors and photographers, so the residents closed the gates to the building. One day, Andrés Gallardo Albajar was on his way home in Alicante from an assignment and stopped by to take some photos. He thought to take only a few pictures but immediately realised he could photograph there for many days. “I had the feeling that if I returned many times, I could always find new angles to shoot from.”

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From the first visit in 2016 to the last in 2021, he visited the complex five times by day and twilight. “I felt I saw only half of the building during that time.” The Muralla Roja has many lines, surfaces, and colours, giving Albajar many graphic possibilities. “My parents are both architects, so I understand the architectural value, but what fascinates me as a photographer are the graphical images I can make there. The light changes with the days and the seasons, so it always gives a new view. I have never been to a place where I stayed so long and still saw new angles and forms.” In the south of Spain, you can find a solid morish influence in the architecture. “The building has been influenced by the Arab times. It is also close to the sea, which affects the paint, so the residents often paint it, making it appear new every time you go there.”

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My parents are both architects, so I understand the architectural value, but what fascinates me as a photographer are the graphical images I can make there.

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‍Urban Geometry

For his big project, Urban Geometry, published in a book, Andrés Gallardo Albajar visited many big cities worldwide. “This project organically started when I got my first camera. My passion for photography started with this project. I had no fixed plan about how to approach the city. It slowly became a project by itself. My first photos were taken in Tallinn, my current hometown in Estonia.”

Gallardo Albajar took photos in the European cities of Helsinki, Berlin, Napoli, Milano, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, and Alicante, including the Far East in Seoul, Taipei, and Taichung. “In 2018, I was invited to Asia, where the project expanded. I included cities in South Korea, China and Japan; this gave the project a global aspect.”

Andrés Gallardo Albajar usually prepares a list of buildings he wants to see and photograph. He mainly walks through the city to enable him to encounter hidden gems. “Sometimes I see other less known buildings by accident that surprise me. About half of the buildings I photograph were found this way.”

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This project organically started when I got my first camera.

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For Albajar, the meaning of a building lies in its formal aspects. “These are personal projects, so I can freely consider my interests without thinking of the architect. It would be completely different if I were making them for a client. In my series, I express my feelings about a building. For me, it is an open dialogue. I can stay for hours near a building and discover many new elements. I need the right mindset to understand what interests me in a building.”

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Even though Albajar learned a lot about modern architecture, his approach remains photographic. “Now, I learned to see architecture functionally, but I mainly want to translate architecture as an aesthetic experience into my photography. Not everything I photograph is interesting from an architectural point of view.”

Some of the modern buildings in the photos have anthropomorphic shapes. “Architects in Seoul used a lot of curved forms and lines. This kind of organic, fluid architecture is prevalent in Asia.”

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In my series, I express my feelings about a building. For me, it is an open dialogue.

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‍Korean Schools

The series Korean Schooling has a somewhat different approach from the other mentioned series. Here, we see frontal and rectangular compositions, quite neutral and consciously less dynamic. The Korean Schools are all taken at ground level straight before the entrances. The photos show the stairways and the names of the schools, mostly in vivid blue and yellow colours. “This project is one of my favourites. It marked the beginning of a new path when I travelled to Asia. I just quit my job and was invited by a magazine to photograph in Seoul. I had plenty of time to produce my work and no plan B. I got lost in a district, ending up in the playground of a school. And I spontaneously took a photo of the façade. When I saw the photo on my computer, I knew I needed to take more similar photos. So, my focus shifted from modern architecture to these classical schools. Since then, I have only photographed schools—several dozen schools, out of which I selected 20 good photographs.”

The Schools series tells the stories of the Korean society. “You can see that football and running are the main sporting activities. In Taiwan, basketball was the dominant game.”

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I just quit my job and was invited by a magazine to photograph in Seoul.

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Polychrome

Another societal series is Polychrome is the Color of Her Eyes, about the Spanish village Villajoyosa. Here, Albajar photographed daily scenes of a sleepy village in the summer full of vibrant colours and harsh shadows. “I took these photos near my hometown, Alicante, during the pandemic when I finally visited my mother. I wanted to photograph minimally, showing my region. There are no prestigious architectural buildings but the local atmosphere.” The colourful walls full of lines, windows, and shadows and the balconies with drying laundry, the white, yellow and white houses form a charming antidote to the ultramodern architecture.

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There are no prestigious architectural buildings but the local atmosphere.

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About

Andrés Gallardo Albajar is the son of architects. So, he grew up in Spain surrounded by architecture books and magazines, often visiting construction sites. Having studied advertising and graphic design, he always had a strong visual culture. However, working as a copywriter and marketing manager, he never found a way to express it. It wasn't until he got a camera as a gift that everything started to align. You can find some of his photos featured in publications such as Architectural Digest, National Geographic, Der Spiegel, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Archdaily, Lonely Planet, Archilovers, Playboy, Design Boom, Vogue Brazil, Photovogue, Fahrenheit, Colossal, One Million Photographers, and plenty more. For his series Muralla Roja he won 3^rd place in Architecture & Design at the Sony World Photography Awards 2023.

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