The exhibition of photographs by the Colombian Fernell Franco (Versalles, Valle del Cauca-Cali, 2006) draws on popular culture as the central factor in the imaginary world of Latin American cities. The visual contribution of this important artist revolves around the street as protagonista, and his images narrate urban life in provincial neighborhoods from an unexpected perspective. Places lying halfway between the rural and the city, existing within a wave of customs suspended in time, places that resiste the onward march of time and retain the essence of a unique visual cultura soaked in the vernacular and decay of backwater communities.

In Cali, a city of rebellious and brilliant characters such as the writer Andrés Caicedo, or the filmmakers Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo, a series of myths and stories took form and helped to shape Franco´s work. They emerge from the context of the suburbs, a part of this country locked in a truncated struggle to find the modern while political violence rips across a society erected on deeply entrenched inequalities.

The aesthetic that Franco has consolidated throughout his over thirty years as a photographer is intrinsic to a particular genre of Cali visual culture dubbed "tropical gothic". The style features mostly dark and decadent environments, but also those exalting the festive atmosphere and social intimacy that exist in Latin society, largely forged in public spaces. The streets are the arena for stand-offs between gangs, where the taverns sprawling across sidewalk and tarmac play a vital role in daily life as spaces for leisure, games and dancing.

Franco was an assiduous visitor to the brothels of Buenaventura, a port on the Colombian Pacific coast, where he overcame his innate shyness and solitude through the friendships developed with the women living there, whom he portrayed in a striking display of strength, power and potential. Prostitutas (Prostitutes), shot from 1971 to 1972, is one of the most extraordinary series in Latin American photography, showcasing with unequivocal force the groundbreaking way in which this photographer experimented with images within and outside the darkroom. With his artistic intentions clear for all to see, he fashions images employing the full range of dramatic possibilities inherent to black, deftly wielding the language of darkness with poetic precision.

Fernell Franco taught himself photography and began work as a street photographer in Cali. He started reporting for newspapers, and from there it was a small leap into the world of advertising. However, even while he vas on assignment for his different works, his attention was caught up by his own personal photographic quest, developing series around themes such as demolitions, ruins and other somber, gloomy locations that pointed to decay and oblivion, as much of the city as of its inhabitants.

The collection of works shown in this exhibition invite us to get acquainted with his more remarkable series, and at the same time appreciate why photography can also be painting: Franco paints with light and shadow, illuminating textures and colors. In parallel with understanding photography as an extension of the endless potential offered by experience beyond its conscious register, all kinds of possibilities open up to the viewer.

María Wills Londoño.