David Barreiro

David Barreiro, A Estrada (Spain), 1982, studied photography at EFTI school (Madrid), getting his Master degree in documentary photography in september 2012. He has been working independently the last three years on his personal work in Iceland, Spain and Cambodia. David has been shooting for the newspaper El Correo Vasco (Alava, Spain) and different reportages with the prestigious fashion magazine Neo2, both in his online and printed version. His project Madrid Business has been published at EXC! Magazine published by the photography school and gallery EFTI. Today we take a look at his series titled, The Hill of Restless Wolves.

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The Hill of Restless Wolves

In 2007, a year before the global economic crisis was to appear in Iceland, the works to create in Úlfasfell area an urban complex of large single-family houses were developing apace. The workers, machinery and construction material in many cases were paid with credit from the now infamous Icelandic banking system. The beneficiaries of these loans were ultimately the companies and individuals working in their self-financed new homes. However, nothing seemed to suggest what was to come. The fall of the following year the nation would occupy a place of importance on the covers of international media following the outbreak of the credit crisis and the subsequent popular uprising would end, at least for a legislature, with the political power of the right in the country.

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The current state of the neighborhood of Úlfarsfell (“Wolf Hill” in Icelandic) is connected one way or another with these events. The area seems to some extent a town where people try to return to normal after the devastating consequences of war. Children build their huts with work material, the construction work taking place slowly here and there and the brand new recently completed chalets necessarily coexist with rubble and disused cranes. Some of the locals just get home, bought at a bargain price taking advantage of the bankruptcy of its former owner. Others enjoy long views of the valley and the local football field from their spacious newly finished homes. A few have been forced to start living at home still unfinished because of the rise in mortgage banking.

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Ultimately this work intends to raise questions about the bidirectional links between the individual and his environment, and induce reflection on the dominant values ​​in countries with free market systems and class aspirations in that context.

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To view more of David’s work, please visit his website.