The books by Ricardo Cases. "Donde pasear es como visitar una tienda de dulces"

For the Author of the Month column we interviewed Ricardo Cases (Orihuela, 1971), photographer, teacher and vibrant soul of the Valencian and Madrid photographic cultural scene. 

After a happy meeting in 2023 on the occasion of Paris Photo, we remained very attached to his work, and above all to his prolific and interesting editorial activity, which is expressed both through publication with large publishing houses such as Dalpine and Mack Books, and - in a truly exuberant and significant way - through the independent activity conducted with his Fiestas Ediciones with which he produces fanzines and artist's books, which in ever different ways present and expand on his photographic art.

Here is the interview and below is a list of Ricardo Cases' titles in our online catalogue and in the bookshop. Enjoy reading :)

 

THE INTERVIEW:


LM:
Could you tell us about your use of colour and where does this fascination come from (if you can trace an origin)?
It seems to us that your practice is expressed through a pop language with surrealist and avant-garde traits.
 
RC:My liking for colour is definitely imposed by the intensity of the light in the place where I live, where walking is like visiting a candy shop, full of incentives for the eye. Our way of looking is conditioned by the context, the character of the people, and above all by the large number of hours of sunshine we receive throughout the year.
As for my language, it certainly has to do with a combative inclination towards the photographic image: my practice is the continuous search for a dreamlike photo, that surely does not exist but which always keeps me restless and excited.
 
LM: In your works there is a very strong connection with your land, your city, people and traditions. Can you tell us what this means to you?
And also in what way can the photographer be useful within the social context and can implement actions that involve and stimulate community participation?
 
RC:When I leave the area where I live to work, I always have the naive feeling of being a tourist and staying on the surface of things. In reality I am interested in capturing the nuances of a society, which for me are essential elements to best represent a given reality. When I do work outside my home (such as ‘Los tamarindos de la Concha', the project I just developed in San Sebastian for Kutxa) my photography becomes more formal and I rely much more on a purely photographic way of intuition and shooting.
I think photography can be a document that offers a new perspective on a place, a society and a time and from this perspective it could have an interesting function.
 
LM: It seems to us that you are a photographer very much tied to the self-production of books and fanzines.
How do you conceive the book-object and what does it mean for you to create and spread it?


RC:In my work I have two very different types of publishing practice. On the one hand, I publish books with works that take several years to make (I have been publishing everything with the Spanish publisher Dalpine for several years) and, at the same time, I produce at home with an INKJET printer fanzines in limited editions that respond to a dynamic need, to a certain editorial incontinence. I like this experience of contradicting the seriousness of making a book by going out on the street to take photos, and publishing them the same day, as if I were having coffee with a friend and telling him about the wonderful experience I had. In fact, these publications try to transfer this experience onto paper with rigour, sometimes maintaining the pattern that the street imposes on you in terms of the sequence and number of photos you take. I would say that these fanzines are a good lubricant for oiling longer projects...they keep me fresh, especially in the search for a new form, a different way of photographing. Finally, I love this exhilarating idea of publishing with the utmost quality and humility.

LM: Is there anything that you feel has never yet been photographed and done in book form that you would love to be the one to do?

RC: I would like to photograph the same things that I always do, my neighbour the carpenter, people working in the fields on a sunny day, a family enjoying a paella on any given Sunday, but looking for a new point of view, a form, a light that would lead me to a different photograph. This is my motivation, my illusion in working, which is to tell the same things with a new formula and with all the wonderful limitations of this language, just as Miguel Hernandez did with a lemon tree.

LM: Would you like to tell us three of your favorite books, or books that have been important to you in your education?

RC: 
Cover to cover, Michael Snow
An imaginary spaniard, Cristobal Hara
Das Land, Manfred Willmann
Documentary, Takuma Nakahira
Neutral corner, Ramón Massats
 
LM:  If you had to recommend three books by current Spanish authors, who would you recommend?

RC: 
El manco, Pablo Casino
El corazón, Pascual Arnal
Grafitti, Antonio Xoubanova
Order, Oscar Monzón
Matter, Aleix Plademunt
Subida al cielo, Lua Ribeira

LM: Do you have a project you're working on for future publication?
 
RC:On November 29th I will open “Los tamarindos de La Concha” at the Artegunea (Tabakalera, San Sebastián), the result of a three-week residency in this Basque city, and I will publish a catalogue with this work with my publishing house Dalpine and the Kutxa Foundation.

Cases books available on our website:

-Autorretrato - Original edition of 25 copies by the artist, signed, Valencia, 2022




-El Ficus del Parterre - Exhibition catalogue, GVA Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana, 2023

-El Ficus del Parterre - Original edition of 25 copies by the artist, Valencia, 2021




-Garaje Astoria -
 Original edition of 50 copies by the artist, signed, Valencia, 2020




-ITALIA - Original edition of 25 copies by the artist, signed and dated, Valencia, 2022




-Madrid - Original edition of 25 copies by the artist, signed and dated, Valencia, 2021




-Paellas y Coches  - First edition edited by the artist, signed and dated in pen on the last page, Valencia, 2021




-Paloma al aire - Edited by the Artist, Third Edition Valencia, 2017




-Sol -
Dalpine, Madrid, 2017 - First Edition




-Camiones II - Novedades Casino, Valencia, 2021

 
We like to conclude this page dedicated to Ricardo Cases with the words of his best "critic" and friend, as he told us during our last meeting, and which deeply expresses what we also read in his photography, the vision of a great author and interpreting his contemporaneity:

“His photographic work focuses on the yearnings of the human being: the deep and universal longings of the citizen of the mass society, fighting against banality in an effort to transcend, confronting his own dignity with a medium always untrustworthy. To this end, he turns his eye to expressions of contemporary folklore, looking for the truth of the Spaniard: a townsman who is forced to live in the city, in modernity. Beyond a pop appearance distant and cynical he is interested in what is human and anthropological. Beyond the social and documentary, he searches for the truthful and universal pulsations beating beneath the banal surface often kitsch and lacking glamour of contemporary Spain.” (Luis López Navarro).