Naroa Perez London, United Kingdom

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Since 2002, Naroa Pérez's (Barcelona, 1978) photography has explored the feelings of touch, nostalgia, pain, and fear. Her work focuses on the darkroom and its craft and emphasises procedural elements such as mistake, chance, and repetition. Her work is already in the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as well as are book collection of the Bodleian Library in Weston, Oxford.

-Trail of Touch- is a photographic project that began in 2017. The sense of touch and nostalgia are the theoretical and emotional elements in this project, which includes both academic and practical photographic study. -Trail of Touch- asserts and legitimises touch as the most vital sense for our survival as a society and as social beings, as it is required to form good connections and grow emotionally. The skin stores memories, which are typically connected with painful events rather than joyful ones. Pain is recalled while pleasure is forgotten. This is the reason why skin seeks for other skin. The themes of memory and nostalgia are linked to photography as a medium. Our emotional history and identity are documented. Restrictive norms and practice have been passed down to photography, and also restrictive norms have been passed down to Touch.

My practice is centred on the creation of touchable photography pieces. I have concentrated my photographic printing on organdy fabric and porcelain, going through various materials that have served as learning tools until I arrived at the two materials I use most frequently to make my artwork.

My practice is focused on analogue darkroom photography and three fundamental concepts that photography has always sought to avoid, and which I celebrate: mistake, chance, and repetition. I choose to convey the mistake as a constructive component of the process. It's triggered by chance and repetition. Mistake is a natural component of our development and freedom. Human error is what sets us apart from the machines. The mechanistic replication of photography as an art discipline is at the centre of the argument. However, human manufacturing and repetition are impossible. Each print is unique. Human error results in a one-of-a-kind piece. The process of creating these pieces is very unpredictable, thus there is typically a great deal of mistake, chance, and repetition, including frustration. But also numerous surprises, happy mistakes, and new artistic paths to explore. Due to these factors, the project remains active.