See photographs you'd never believe at the Revela't Festival

Barcelona"I've seen things you wouldn't believe," said the replicant Roy Batty in the memorable final monologue of Blade RunnerThis iconic phrase inspires this year's thirteenth edition of the Revela't Festival, which once again transforms Vilassar de Dalt into the epicenter of analog photography and alternative photographic processes. True to the spirit of surprise and bewilderment evoked by the event, the festival offers a tour of more than twenty exhibitions by international photographers and artists, as well as all kinds of parallel activities, such as talks, workshops, and a photography market.

At a time when the constant bombardment of images and the dizzying advance of artificial intelligence have blurred the boundaries between reality and the imaginary, and when it seems nothing can surprise us, analog photography is asserting itself as an act of resistance. The organizers are well aware of this: for thirteen editions, the festival has sought to be a refuge for a way of creating based on pause, material, and reflection, a commitment to looking beyond immediacy and recovering the value of the photographic process as a conscious experience.

"It's the space for all of us who continue to do analog photography," says festival director Pep Mínguez, who recalls that Revela't was the first festival in the world dedicated exclusively to this type of photography. A pioneering initiative that, over the years, has established itself as an international benchmark and today attracts nearly 15,000 visitors each year.

This year, the festival pays tribute to Juan Manuel Díaz Burgos, an internationally renowned documentary photographer and humanist, author of more than fifteen photography books. During these days, visitors will be able to see one of his most emblematic works, Continuous movement: a project that encompasses more than three decades of work in Cuba, where the artist has documented the daily lives of its inhabitants with a profound and committed eye. The result is a visual narrative about the creativity and resilience of a people, especially in the ingenuity applied to transportation systems: "From bicycles converted into taxis to reinvented American cars, each image reflects adaptation, struggle, and dignity," explains the festival.

Reinventing analog

At Revelate, experimentation and imperfection are not only welcomed, but are also championed as essential elements of the creative process. The festival champions a vision that eschews digital immediacy and explores the multiple expressive possibilities of photography, combining historical techniques with contemporary practices. This philosophy is evident in proposals such as that of Lluís Estopiñán, who is participating in the festival for the third time and who this year presents Meantime, a visual reflection on time and transience through analog language.

A painter trained at the Escola Massana, Lluís Estopiñán has incorporated analog photography into his artistic practice over the last decade. "With Meantime I was very interested in the idea of the relationship between space and time. While painting is emotion and space, photography is a fragment of frozen time," explains the author. In this project, the artist merges the two disciplines through cyanotype, a 19th-century photographic technique that allows him to superimpose negatives or old glass plates so that they dialogue with each other and unite in the many and very different people and people in many and people scene," he adds.

Among this year's highlights is that of Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase, considered one of the most radical and experimental photographers of the postwar generation in Japan. For many years, much of his work remained hidden or inaccessible, but now Revela't presents one of his most emblematic pieces: the series Ravenes (curves), an intense and dark collection that has been acclaimed as "a masterpiece of photography" by international critics.

Revelate visitors can also discover The end, an exhibition by American photographer Rodney Smith, renowned for his timeless, elegant, and subtly surreal images. Inspired by figures such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and René Magritte, Smith creates compositions that oscillate between realism and fantasy, in which human figures appear in architectural or natural landscapes that seem taken from a fairy tale.

In another of the festival's exhibition spaces, spread across several points in Vilassar de Dalt, you can see Burning world. Portraits in ashes, by South African photographer Gideon Mendel. With a career marked by his commitment to social and environmental issues, Mendel presents haunting portraits of survivors of devastating wildfires around the world. The images show the subjects standing before the ruins of their burned-out homes, "standing before the camera with dignity and resilience," in the words of the organizers.

Dialogue with artificial intelligence is also present at the festival, in exhibitions such as Potential stories, parallel universes, by Fred Ritchin. In this work, the renowned American theorist and editor explores the confrontation—and possible coexistence—between analog photography and AI-generated images. The result is a profound reflection on the limits, risks, and potential of the new visual paradigm that is opening up before us, and an invitation to rethink the future of photographic representation.

Analog Universe

The Photographic Market will also be held in Plaça de la Vila over the weekend of May 24th and 25th. This is a well-established festival space that has become a must-attend meeting point for analog photography enthusiasts. Specialized brands, international manufacturers, publishers, and creators will present products, cameras, materials, and limited editions of high-quality photographic work. In addition, workshops, screenings, and other activities will be scheduled throughout the festival to discover, learn, and share the best of analog photography.

Thus, Revela't once again becomes a space for cultural resistance, challenging the dizzying pace of the present and championing a slower perspective, one with texture, depth, and presence. Beyond celebrating photography, the festival proposes a way of seeing—and understanding—the world through calm, craftsmanship, and reflection.