Moments of Sun

Standing in water, a person’s lower half is cast in a shadow as the ocean stretches past them into the horizon. Beyond the silhouette, the glare of sun permeates the sky and reflects onto the water, illuminating various layers of blue. In another scene, a toddler climbs onto orange cushions atop a bright blue floor in the middle of a dim room. The instance is illuminated by a sun that seeps in through an open window in the back of the frame, the countryside visible beyond it. Captured by Pia Riverola, the two moments come to life in her new book, Días, a mosaic of lustrous scenes from various locations around the world. 

Self-taught, Riverola’s photography possesses a beautiful effortlessness and ambiguity, one that is seductive and inviting. Her images span fashion, architecture, still life, and landscape. What unites her work is a focus on vibrant color, configuration, and, most importantly, the vitality of singular moments.

Días follows the success of Flechazo, an ode to Riverola’s life in Mexico, published in 2022. The sophomore book’s Spanish title translates to “days” in English, an apt metaphor for the fleeting—both tangible and intangible—quality of activity that the photographer explores. She hones in on light and motion to infuse the individuality of location with a sensory vagueness. In one image, a figure walks through the rain with an umbrella at night; neon signs line the frame, their typography indicating a city somewhere in Asia. In another photograph, a traditional tapestry is held up to cover the sun, and its unique floral pattern–whilst speaking to location–is focalized and reflected on the table below.

Riverola’s work is drenched in imagery like this: sensorial images that invoke sensations of flavor, smell, and touch. There is extreme potency to her images that beckons viewers to feel something, to taste something, to go somewhere new. She does not demand that our attention be bound to the location of that somewhere; her subject is rather the light, the color, the people—a particular moment of existence. 

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Días by Pia Riverola is available now.