What do we find in this splendid album, Beyond light and shadows? A labyrinthine world in which words and images merge, revealing a game of mirrors that often becomes a palimpsest, moving from the simplicity and ascetic purity of a Japanese drawing to the Baroque texture of a theatrical or purely visual production.
The world of Alin Barbir’s images, accompanied by Irina Barbir’s haikus and more elaborate poems, is one that reveals the mystery of existence, the miracle of life, but also the implacable presence of death, degradation, and chaos. There is a spectral quality to these photographs, which dilutes the materiality of a frame and relativizes the certainty of our perception. More often than not, the perspective of Alin Barbir reveals a passion for mystery rather than a penchant for the material, the palpable, or an appetite for definitive answers.
For Alin Barbir, the world has still not lost all of its magic, and the interplay of shadows and light urges us to accompany him along this rite of initiation whose signs are scattered throughout all of his photographs.
Text by Anca Măniuțiu
