Un destello de posibilidad

This exhibition takes its title from a project by Paul Graham developed over several trips across the United States in the early 2000s. Rejecting the epic notion of the decisive moment, Graham photographed ordinary scenes from everyday life, revealing the emotion that can emerge from the commonplace. His images captured actions without climax or resolution, leaving only that faint “shimmer of possibility” that appears when something begins to unfold.

Following this same premise, and in dialogue with the theme of PHotoESPAÑA 2026, Reimagining, the exhibition proposes a reading of the José Luis Soler Collection through a selection of works permeated by this particular glow.

These photographs never fully reveal themselves, but instead invite a complicit viewer to complete the picture before them. On the one hand, there is a group of deliberately ambiguous images, dominated by a sense of mystery, hypothesis, suspicion or absence. On the other, fragments of a decontextualised and interrupted reality, as if the camera had arrived late to the scene.

Night, dreams, intoxication, the city and its outskirts, the world of entertainment and its fictions are the protagonists of different groups of images that unfold through an associative installation, in which certain thematic or dramatic coincidences allow a shared narrative to emerge.

There is something in these images as powerful as what they show: the off-screen, the countless social, political and emotional circumstances behind these faces and landscapes. Each photograph is a doorway into a possible story, towards an interpretation that can never be definitive.

Andrea Franco, curator

A Tribute to José Luis Soler

José Luis Soler Vila (1956–2024) was a businessman deeply committed to his surroundings, passionate about art and aware of culture as an essential asset to society. Together with his wife, Susana Lloret Segura, and with the advice of Vicente Todolí, he built a valuable collection of abstract art and photography. His legacy, comprising more than two thousand photographs by leading international artists, seeks to remain alive and be shared with the artistic community and the public.

The José Luis Soler Collection and PHotoESPAÑA have established an annual award in his memory, highlighting his photographic collection while supporting new talent in research, curating, mediation and cultural management. The award seeks to give visibility to emerging curators, whether Spanish or international residents in Spain, as part of a philanthropic approach that also recognises their work.

In its second edition, the José Luis Soler Curatorial Award has been granted to Andrea Franco for her exhibition project Un destello de posibilidad, a cinematic reading of the José Luis Soler Collection. The first edition of the award was given to Eva del Llano for Mnemosyne. Derivas y fragmentos en la producción de memoria.

Section texts

Where Are the Dreams of Youth Now?

This section, whose title comes from a melodrama by Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, focuses on a series of introspective figures, or characters caught in a state of waiting, often framed by doors or thresholds, or seen through panes of glass and reflections cast back onto themselves. It is perhaps the most melancholic section, where a certain sense of disillusionment or existential emptiness begins to emerge, particularly through the recurring motif of the window. In painting, photography, and cinema alike, the window evokes an exterior towards which both the gaze and our desires are directed.

Telephone Calls

Perhaps the most mysterious of the sections, this one is slightly oblique, slightly shrouded in darkness. Hidden or absent figures emerge from the shadows, hinting at enigmatic situations and narratives that remain deliberately unresolved.

In Media Res

Here, the camera not only captures a pivotal moment, but seems to bring the entire flow of life around the scene to a halt. Decisive instants, caught on the fly and almost always amid crowds, form a sequence of images that are pure movement.

The Power of Emptiness

This section brings together different forms of appropriation—and disappropriation—of public space: ruins and vacant lots, peripheral areas and industrial sites, former football grounds… Spaces charged with political meaning—poverty, displacement, abandonment, urban speculation—are re-signified by citizens through a wide range of uses.

Show Time!

A look at the entertainment industry through theatres, clubs, fairs, and cabarets in France, Japan, and the United States. From Broadway to Shinjuku, flashes, neon lights, and mirrors capture the essence of the night, while the faces and bodies of its protagonists suggest other kinds of fantasies.

At the same time, the influence of cinema and popular culture can be perceived not only in urban society, but also in the references that the photographers themselves draw upon when composing or titling their images.

Smoke and Bubbles

Scenes steeped in alcohol unfold in bars, cafés, pubs, and nightclubs. By day or by night, with beer, sherry, sake, or champagne, these images capture something beyond the simple conviviality of drinking and celebration.