The selection of images presented in this article is only a small sample of her work. Ten photographs are a small sample and yet give us many clues of her career. Ten black and white images, but one that is marked by three red chairs.
In these images we don't see people, quite the opposite as in some of her other series such as "The Art Circle / El Círculo del Arte" where she reflected on who validate and give validity to a work of art. There we could see the characters portrayed on a small white base, a composition element that demonstrates to what extent Mariela Apollonio carefully plans and prepares the space for her shots.
Some of the images shown here (the castle, the nursery, the cultural centre) feature halfway built architectures in construction - or destruction - process. A vision of time that depends largely on the interpretation of the viewer, an unfinished view of the interior of buildings planned to house the activities and ephemeral lives of its occupants, a vision that might be devastating as well as inspiring.
Her exterior shots also display a different reality, frozen time where landscapes also suggest that same sense of timelessness just as in the disturbing image of the Auditorium and Congress Hall, a vision that is dramatized and intensified through lights and shadows in the Regulatory Council headquarters.
The inclusion of time is suggested in the two outdoor images chosen by Mariela Apollonio. Rambleta Cultural Centre in Valencia is shown through the tree branches, a less epic and clean view of the building but also more natural. The restoration of Valencia's Blast Furnace #2 is more iconic but it is wrapped by the dim lights of the sunset. These images show us the way "to understand architecture photography assuming it is, above all things, a way of thinking and give sense to reality. Moreover, she believes that it is impossible not to interpret architecture through subjectiveness and thought, and without concealing the author's look."
Her studies in Fine Arts can be noticed throughout her work, for example in the only image with three drops of red in this article, and is also evident in the high degree of abstraction that defines her compositions.
A photographer who constantly travels and has jobs, clients and exhibitions all around Europe, living and working between Valencia and Berlin.
Texto por.- José Juan Barba. Dr. Arquitecto.
