My anger is heavier than concrete

My anger is heavier than concrete is a visual poem on rage and sadness linked to the feminine experience, co-created by photographer Jara García Azor and costume designer Lucía Lomas.

My anger is heavier than concrete is a visual poem on rage and sadness linked to the feminine experience, co-created by photographer Jara García Azor and costume designer Lucía Lomas. 

Sparked by conversations between girlfriends, this series taps into the common experience that women and people non-conforming with masculine and patriarchal standards share: the feeling of being extremely angry at the world, all while feeling sad and tired. Photography acts as a tool to denounce systemic and patriarchal violence and to create an oasis where subjects defy the dominant male gaze and regain power over their own representation. 

Drawing from their inner circle, Lucía and Jara look for individuals that identify with the ideas of anger, revenge, loneliness, sadness, melancholy... to collaborate and portray them in a way that feels authentic and genuine to their real life narratives and issues. 

The result is a succession of symbolically-charged works that interrogate the Catholic impositions on morale, guilt and sexuality. These symbols, which hoard tremendous power in Spain, are updated and subverted by women and the LGTBQ+ community to give them a new life within Gen Z: baptism, bust portraits, equestrian paintings, nudity, nature as a shelter, satanic representations ... The shoot is conceived as an end in itself. From the initial meet-up with subjects, where everyone talks about their issues and shares how they would like to get involved; to the day of the shoot, that becomes a cathartic experience, it is a ritual. 

Shot in settings that speak to the subjects' teenage years, this series displays generational angst and connects individual stories to a wider socio-political context, referencing Spain’s tense political climate and the unprecedented rise of far right narratives. The core of these images revolves around dark and heavy emotions; but still, over time, other sentiments have surfaced: agency, control, strength, empowerment through sex, intimacy, sisterhood, love for knowledge, rebirth... giving this series a healing purpose.

My anger is heavier than concrete, ongoing since September of 2022, has helped Lucía and Jara to develop a way-of-working that adapts to their subjects and results in impactful yet symbolically-charged images. Costume design, light schemes, locations and references to Catholic Church and Spanish culture collaborate towards one same goal: telling the story of Isabel, Gio, Olga, Blanca, Lucía, Jara... This is a project that will continue to live in the physical form of a photobook. Being a research-based work, a glossary will accompany the images making interpretation more accessible to the viewer with quotes, anecdotes and references. Glossary URL: https://jaragarciaazor.com/GLOSSARY-My-anger-is-Heavier