JJ LORENZO
Spain
Borderline
From a romanticized past, carving out the present territory.
When the form changes, the content changes as well. This is a fact for the generation born and raised to the other side of the old Iron Curtain after 1991.
The corruption and poverty inherited from the past had always been part of the landscape. The appearance of the internet reshaped rules and accelerated changes. Ever since, the gap between generations has increased notoriously. The old way of life with its codes have expired and they are no longer valid for the new generation of digital natives.
From the ashes of the Euromaidan to the present day, Borderline emerges as a need to document the transient and ephemeral nature of a generation. They are not living the dream, but they aren’t giving it up either. Their mood is far from hopeless. It is not about caving in, it is about different strategies for surviving in troubled times.
The nostalgia for a peaceful time and hopes for a better future meld with a present defined by friendship, solidarity and the pain of war and exile.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
JJ Lorenzo is a Spanish photographer based in London, UK. He studied Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid and completed his training in 2011 with a Master in Photographic Creation at the EFTI school of photography in Madrid. A year later, he moved to London to continue his path in photography.
His work is characterized by the exploration of the psychological portrait and exploration of new lines of storytelling in documentary photography. In 2018 and influenced by the photographers Bertien Van Manen and Keizo Kitajima, he began to travel regularly to Ukraine and the Baltic Estates. Through the life of his friends, JJ portrays the problems of a generation marked by friction between a past of strong Russian colonial heritage and a volatile present with yearnings for peace and independence. His work has been published on i-D, Dazed or Nowness. In May 2023, his first book Sun as an Anchor will be published in collaboration with the Caribbean artist Jawara Alleyne.
