Under the skin
Martin Sampedro‘s latents are devoid of that tragic vision because the radiographed bodies are not real but imaginary, sublimated by desire. Sampedro fix the umbilical cord between the beginnings of photography (the latent image as a principle of analog photo) and the last digital or holographic techniques, using the concept of latency as mental substrate. Sculptural anatomies scanned by our libido, copulating, practicing cunnilingus, reflected in concave and distorting mirrors, photographing themselves in a mise en abyme in which memory and desire, virtuality and carnality, coexist. As viewers we project our libido in those flashes of conscience unrevealed. We can choose between keeping the latency, phantasmic status, hallucinated and masturbatory, or break the spell developing the image with our smartphone.
