[He Plays the Music, We Dance]
If Manuela Lorente’s projects had a play button, we would see a script for a sit-com, with unforgettable characters and a crazy plot. The work of Lorente, who has been defined as “a photographer of what no longer exists”, is part of the tradition of farce or burlesque; popular plays that use fiction to portray the spirit of their time.
This photographer, naturally playful and trained as an architect, uses hyper-realistic documentary material captured at street level –a bar facade, a game of cards, a guffaw, a suspicious look– to put together a visual narrative in which everyday situations in life become scenes from a movie. Él pone la música, nosotros bailamos (He plays the music, we dance) is the first in a series of six stories in collaboration with Pedro Colau León, the author of the texts. In this second part of the story, we go on a trip with some low-level hoodlums who believe they are the main characters in a gangster movie. They end up getting dragged into a classic robbery, the kind that always goes wrong.
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Born in 1991, Manuela Lorente lives and works in Madrid, Spain. She holds a degree in Architecture and a master’s degree in Photography and Project Management from EFTI, where she was awarded the Al Betrayal Future Prize. Currently, she works as a freelance photographer and leads workshops at Espai fotogràfic Can Basté and Elisa Miralles School of Photography. Lorente has collaborated with various institutions and organizations including the Community of Madrid, Telefónica Foundation, Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, Portuguese Chamber of Commerce, and IE Film Festival. Her work has also been featured in magazines such as Yo Dona, Vanity Fair, and Marie Claire. Lorente’s artwork has been selected for exhibitions and awards including PhotoEspaña Discoveries 2020, PHmuseum Top Graduate to Watch in 2021, JustMad Fair 2021, XI Meeting of New Artists of Galicia, the Photography Prize at Encontros da Imagem de Braga, and the screening of Scan Tarragona 2022. In 2022, she was a finalist for the Espai fotogràfic Can Basté Scholarship. The artist has published two books with Dalphine Editorial: He Plays the Music, We Dance (2021) and Who Kills This Rat? (2022).
