Almost There

Understanding the world requires you to keep a certain distance from it. Things that are too small to see with the naked eye, such as molecules and atoms, we magnify. Things that are too large, such as cloud formations, river deltas, constellations, we reduce. We need to bring it within the scope of our senses, to stabilise and fix it. When it has been fixed we call it knowledge. - Karl Ove Knausgård, A Death in the Family

Aleix Plademunt’s photographic project Almost There was spurred on by the arrival of a postcard, 101 years late.

Plademunt's images play with scale as he explores time and distance, pulling both notions in the most extreme directions. The journeys begin within as Plademunt looks to his own being and the buildings blocks of his physical existence, from images of his red blood cells to his father in his youth. The narrative then reaches outwards, exploring the classic American documentary tradition of the road trip and the Solar System and beyond to the M79 globular cluster, located 42,000 light years from Earth.

Plademunt’s work has always been rooted in the landscape, and in Almost There he builds on this with an interrogation of the possibilities of the photographic, pushing the boundaries of each photographic tradition he encounters.

Almost There is a book work which presents a challenging constellation of images; vast Canadian terrains precede archeological images of Neanderthal remains, which settle between found objects. Landscapes and skyscapes partner animals and interiors, all culminating in an overriding sense of distance and displacement. Almost There is a constant return journey, an exploration of what is closest and what is furthest away. Ultimately Plademunt communicates his frustration, of never being close enough and never being far enough away, just managing to be almost there.

Aleix Plademunt was born in Girona, Catalonia, in 1980. In 1998, he started to study Technical Engineering but switched to study Photography at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia after two years. He is the recipient of many awards including a scholarship to study at the Universidad de las Americas, and the Fotopress09 Scholarship to create the project DubaiLand. He has had solo exhibitions across the world including France, Spain, Venezuela and the UK and he’s been part of group exhibitions Germany, America, Cambodia and Spain amongst others.