Tales of a City VII – summer of 2019

Every summer I visit Weston-super-Mare, which is the town where my partner is from. Weston is a very photogenic coastal town near Bristol and Cardiff in Somerset, England. I always enjoy my days there and its scenery inspires me. Nobody knows, but I sometimes fantasize about what my partner’s childhood and teen years were like around the area. I feel a great tenderness when I explore this town and the nearby places like Taunton, Brean Down and Burnham on Sea because of that fantasy.

I usually do these walks on my own because my partner is working, so my imagination just flies. My summers used to be quite different, I’m from La Palma, one of the seven Canary Islands, in Spain. There, I would spend the whole hot summer in a black sand beach near home, so exploring Weston becomes an exotic experience because the urban and rural landscapes are unusual for me. I never get bored in Weston. These photos show again my fetishes in photography: reflections, shop windows, curious finds and saturated colours. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that I feel mesmerized when I go sightseeing there, and I guess that is what the photos show.

I have been visiting the UK for an ongoing photo-narrative project entitled “Tales of a City” since 2005. This set also belongs to this long term research about the British identity, these personal photos belong to the seventh tale. This series was selected and finished during my lockdown in Tenerife due to the coronavirus, while the world is focusing on what is happening, my heart and my mind told me that I should work on my old stuff and find some beauty instead. I’ve found my refuge in these good memories.

Seigar is a philologist in English, a high school teacher, and a curious photographer based in Tenerife. He is a fetishist for reflections, saturated colours, details and religious icons. He feels a passion for pop culture that shows in his series. He considers himself a travel and street photographer. His aim as an artist is to tell tales with his camera. Travelling is his main inspiration. His most important projects so far are his “Plastic People” and “Tales of a City”. He is also into social documentation. He has experimented with video forms. His last interest is identity. Find for more of his work, find him on Instagram: @jseigar or visit his website.