Incoming Barça coach Ernesto Valverde's hidden passion
Valverde's a keen photographer and has been throughout his career
A collection of his images, taken between 2004 and 2012, have been published
The incoming Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has another passion beyond football: photography. The coach has long been a fan of the art and in 2013 had the honour of seeing the book 'Medio Tiempo' -- an extensive collection of his best creations -- published by La Fabrica Editorial.
It's a collection which comprises of 66 photographs in black and white which Valverde took between 2004 and 2012 and reflect his life both on and off the pitch: travel landscapes, social snapshots (especially in Greece, where he worked as a coach), the atmosphere of a football stadium, family portraits or even his team-mates.
His images show a world of common spaces such as hotels, airplanes, buses, football pitches, tourist areas and, in general, lonely places. In the prologue of the book, Bernardo Atxaga affirms that the majoirty of the people present in Valverde's photographs seem "solitary".
He says of the images: "They are both delicate and hard at the same time, as if they were made by two hands: a Japanese hand that watches over the landscapes and a German hand that takes care of the portraits. Sometimes the both act together, especially in those images which feature a younger subject."
For Atxaga, Valverde's photographs go beyond what they show at first glance and they convey -- paraphrasing Carson McCullers -- "the sense of chance, transience, almost fear."
When Valverde's photographs were on exhibition, the leaflet stated that "he has been photographing ever since he was a teenager and studied at the Institut d'Estudis Fotografics de Catalunya in Barcelona. He has been carrying a camera with him all this time -- on and off the football pitch -- so let's see if he brings one with him to his presentation later this week.
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