London. 1959

London. 1959, comprises photographs that Chilean artist Sergio Larrain made during the winter of 1958/1959. Some 7,000 miles from his native Santiago, Larrain is drawn to the city’s gothic “melancholic urban designs” (Larrain’s words). His photos are of a city blanketed in thick fog at night, looks of alienation on strangers’ faces, shadowy figures that move through the frame. Larrain’s London project made an impression on Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, who wrote: “He’s the accidental photographer, or so it seems; the playful photographer, the Chilean kid let loose. He appears to be many things that he isn’t. At times I think he seeks harmony or a simulacrum of harmony: the instant at which everything stops and men come to resemble objects. Nothing moves. The rain freezes in the air. The man with the umbrella grows to look like the equestrian statue in the background. The eye opens until it’s the size of a mouth.”