Tolo Parra
‘Obscuria de Profundis’
by Tolo Parra, published by Void.
Sold out from the publisher.
“It seems that the only certainty is that man was born on earth but his future is the stars, the universe and the uncertainty of knowing himself lonely in this unknown dimension.”
Tolo Parra
Obscuria de Profundis
‘Obscuria de Profundis’ was developed from 2016 to 2020. It is a search for visual answers to the riddle of existence. Tolo uses everyday objects that correspond with allegorical objects in the cosmos. They illustrate the path that the species have traveled from its origin to the present time. Looking for the resolution of the oldest enigma, that of existence:
What are we?
Where do we come from?
Where are we going?
It remains the main reason that moves the species to continue. From the dark path to the light of knowledge.
Parra's photographs are mixed with found images to create a visual dialogue between eras and matter. Attempting to answer, though fiction, those real questions.
“Perhaps man has done nothing else since his birth as a species rather than wandering in an infinite desert of nothing. A dark and unknown dimension to his consciousness in which his only destiny is the eternal search. Although the result is always to get the answer that he still knows nothing and that silence is the only answer infinity gives him.”
Tolo Parra
Published and designed by Void in 2020, the project concept was developed by Tolo Parra in collaboration with the awarded editor Gonzalo Golpe.
The book is divided into 6 chapters, presenting the narrative arch of the universe: between the initial and the final “nothing”… all the history of mankind.
Tolo Parra
Tolo Parra (1980) born and based in Seville (Spain), uses photography to get closer to his surroundings and himself. His observations have led him to make innumerable trips in search of the landscape and the human cartography found imprinted on it. The periphery, the peri-urban zones, the border zones, and the wilderness, are some of his flags.
Parra’s work shows us a new metalanguage. Fiction as a consequence of reality and the impossible, the result of truth. Melancholy and longing are constant in it.
In recent years he has exhibited in Spain, Mexico, and England. Tolo received the honorable mention of the Annual Prize for the Arts of the Government of Japan (2007), and the recent annual exhibition access at the Center for Cultural Initiatives of Seville: CICUS 2016-2017. Tolo Parra is a founding member of the Spanish photography school DarkRoom. There he combines his role as an author with that of teacher and coordinator.
24 x 32 cm
208 pages
800 copies
Softcover
Texts in English & Spanish
ISBN 978-618-84341-9-6
Obscuria de Profundis
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‘Obscuria de Profundis’ by Tolo Parra is out of print.
Listen to the ‘Obscuria de Profundis playlist on Spotify.
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✳︎ Shortlist — Best Photobook 2021 — PhotoEspaña
✳︎ Selected for the ‘Demons’ Exhibition at Charta Festival, Roma 2021
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ENGLAND, Picnic
GEORGIA, Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum
GERMANY, Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau, Bibliothek
GREECE, Med Photo Fest
GREECE, National Library of Greece
GREECE, Photometria Photography Center
GREECE, Void
IRELAND, The Library Project
LATVIA, ISSP
PORTUGAL, Narrativa
ROMANIA, Photo Romania Festival at Grain Lab
SPAIN, Biblioteca Agustí Centelles
SPAIN, Library of Museo San Telmo
SPAIN, UFCA Colectivo Fotográfico
SWITZERLAND, De Pietri Artphilein Foundation
USA, Bethel University Library
USA, Columbia University in the City of New York
USA, MoMA Library
USA, New York Public Library, The
USA, Princeton University Library
USA, University of Chicago Library
USA, Yale University Library
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Photograph: Tolo Parra
Design: João Linneu
Edit: Gonzalo Golpe
Printing: Coria Grafica
Binding: Coria Grafica
Language: English, Spanish
Tolo Parra © for the photographs
Void © for this edition