Cargo (2007-2017)
The creative process is similar to a journey. In search of our own voice, we set out on the road to meet everything that is capable of moving us head on. At first, we walk through it intuitively, but as we move forward, we can catch a glimpse of what we are made of.
Matias Costa’s projects are imbued with a deep reflection on identity, memory (or oblivion) and land; he has received many awards including two World Press Photo Awards in 2000 and 2002.
Cargo is a good example of this. In 2007 he began to take an interest in the fishing fleet of the former Soviet Union, which, after the collapse of the country, was abandoned in various ports around the world. In particular, he focused his attention on the ships stranded in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
For more than a decade, Costa made several trips during which he met the people who lived in those metallic wastelands that became stranded ships.
This is not just about getting documentation. This project is a reflection on memory and how rust grows in us over time just as it happened to those boats that lost their meaning.
Matías Costa
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1973
Based in Spain since he was a child, the work of this Argentinean photographer explores memory, loss and the search for family identity through notions such as history and maps. For his photographs, he looks for places with an atmosphere of uprootedness and melancholy. He began his professional career in photojournalism, but then gradually moved towards documentary photography. He is the founder of the NOPHOTO collective and contributes to numerous publications and media.
