45-year-old Spanish photographer Roberto Alcaraz’s Instagram bio says, “Ordinary places. Ordinary things. Ordinary pics”. While it’s true that Alcaraz shoots urban landscapes that probably wouldn’t seem that mind-blowing in real life, his dreamy photography—which is characterised by compelling symmetry and rendered in hazy pastel hues—turns mundane streets in to a surrealistic Wes Anderson universe.
Having spent 25 years of his life living in a village just outside of Benidorm, a city where he worked for 10 years, Alcarzaz started documenting the town, which is best-known for hosting millions of tourists (Brits in particular) each summer, coming on package holidays to get tanned and drunk under the Spanish sun.
Many photographers have been obsessively documenting the tacky lifestyles of Benidorm’s red-faced tourists à la Martin Parr. But this isn’t what caught the attention of Alcaraz. “I have opted for the background, the scenario that has made Benidorm famous”, he says before adding, “I play to challenge with those who feel prejudices towards the city by showing them images of Benidorm that they don’t expect to see”.
Pale blues, powdery purples and soft pinks dominate his images, which blissfully capture the mesmerizing repeated lines of the brutalist buildings he stumbles across.
When asked where this constant urge to find perfect geometry and harmony comes from, the photographer explains that it is probably a personal response to the conflicted feelings he has developed towards Benidorm. Finding unexpected serenity through architecture in this buzzing city has been providing him an indescribable feeling of escape. And by sharing it with the world, he’s leaving us in awe and ready to book a flight to… Benidorm.
