DAVID GOMEZ MAESTRE
Neither tarnished, nor afraid
18 November 2016
Photographer and illustrator David Gomez Maestre hails from Alicante and is based in Los Angeles, and you can see the influence both his home base and native roots have had on his work. His images are a sublime and ultra contemporary melange of 90s indie fashion and 70s New Hollywood, set at sundown in the Mediterranean – think a modern day Shampoo, cast with a group of sexily self-conscious twentysomethings and filmed in Technicolor during a permanent sunset in Spain.
The umbers, reds, musky pinks, and beiges emanate a dry, Indian summer heat, and even the muted blues, whites and teals give off a sense of warmth. Add to this a keen sense of composition and framing, Maestre’s images are cut in a way that puts the viewer so close to the models so that you’re almost inside the frame with them. And yet the low angle shots keep them just out of reach – teasing the viewer, straining to get just that little bit closer to these exquisite individuals. Just to look, not to touch.