Barcelona's working port at night: moored trawlers, sodium lamps reflected on the wet quay, the foreground falling into darkness

Photographer · Barcelona

Mara Lindqvist

Documentary photographer in Barcelona since 2018: editorial features and portraits on location, about eight commissions a year. Three personal series, 103 photographs kept: the working port at night, the rooftops above the street, the R1 north along the coast.

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A contact sheet of eight frames from the three series, 2019 to 2024. Three are circled in grease pencil, frames 02, 05 and 08, and printed in the order 05, 08, 02.

The edit

8 frames · 3 circled

  1. Two rusty trawlers moored side by side at a wet quay at night, ice sliding into blue crates under sodium lamps, a gantry crane in the amber haze behind
    Frame 01, Nits del Port, Moll dels Pescadors, 2021
  2. A dockworker seen from behind coiling heavy rope under a single sodium lamp, his breath visible, a trawler's dark bow towering at the edge of the frame
    Frame 02, Nits del Port, Port Vell, 2022, circled
  3. Stacked fish crates full of crushed ice glowing under amber sodium light, two gulls perched on the top crate, a dark hull out of focus behind
    Frame 03, Nits del Port, Barceloneta, 2020
  4. A sea of Barcelona rooftops in the last hour of evening light: terracotta tile, backlit laundry, water tanks and television aerials against the warm sky
    Frame 04, Els Terrats, Gràcia, 2023
  5. An older woman seen from behind pegging a white sheet to a rooftop washing line, the low sun glowing through the fabric, the city falling away behind
    Frame 05, Els Terrats, El Raval, 2024, circled
  6. Rusted water tanks and a thicket of television aerials in silhouette against a deep dusk sky, one lit stairwell window, swifts overhead
    Frame 06, Els Terrats, Poble-sec, 2022
  7. The flat winter Mediterranean through the window of a moving train, silver glare off the sea, the silhouetted head of a single passenger at the frame's edge
    Frame 07, La Costa, Between Montgat and Ocata, 2019
  8. An empty seafront platform in winter morning light, a lone figure with a bag far down the platform, low sun flaring gently off the sea
    Frame 08, La Costa, Sant Pol de Mar, 2020, circled

Eight years in three places, 103 photographs kept from about 250 rolls. Three are circled on this sheet.

Commissions and prints →
Two rusty trawlers moored side by side at a wet quay at night, ice sliding into blue crates under sodium lamps, a gantry crane in the amber haze behind
No. 01 · Portra 800Moll dels Pescadors · 2021

Nits del Port

Since 2019 · 34 photographs

The boats come in at four, while the city is still asleep, and the quay is lit by sodium lamps. At that hour nobody performs for a camera.

Stacked fish crates full of crushed ice glowing under amber sodium light, two gulls perched on the top crate, a dark hull out of focus behind
No. 03 · Barceloneta · 2020
A dockworker seen from behind coiling heavy rope under a single sodium lamp, his breath visible, a trawler's dark bow towering at the edge of the frame
No. 02 · Port Vell · 2022 · printed above
A sea of Barcelona rooftops in the last hour of evening light: terracotta tile, backlit laundry, water tanks and television aerials against the warm sky
No. 04 · Portra 400Gràcia · 2023

Els Terrats

2022–2024 · 28 photographs

Three to six floors above Gràcia, El Raval and Poble-sec, in the last hour of light from May to September: washing lines, water tanks, aerials, and the neighbours who use the roofs the way other cities use gardens.

Rusted water tanks and a thicket of television aerials in silhouette against a deep dusk sky, one lit stairwell window, swifts overhead
No. 06 · Poble-sec · 2022
An older woman seen from behind pegging a white sheet to a rooftop washing line, the low sun glowing through the fabric, the city falling away behind
No. 05 · El Raval · 2024 · printed above
The flat winter Mediterranean through the window of a moving train, silver glare off the sea, the silhouetted head of a single passenger at the frame's edge
No. 07 · Portra 400Between Montgat and Ocata · 2019

La Costa

2018–2020 · 41 photographs

The R1 runs north along the water from Sants to Maçanet. In winter you can ride it for an hour with the carriage to yourself.

A shaft of low winter sun cutting across the worn seats of an old commuter train, dust in the light, the flat sea sliding past the windows
No. 09 · Morning train to Mataró · 2019
An empty seafront platform in winter morning light, a lone figure with a bag far down the platform, low sun flaring gently off the sea
No. 08 · Sant Pol de Mar · 2020 · printed above
Mara Lindqvist in her darkroom under the red safelight, looking down at a freshly developed black-and-white print held in tongs, negatives hanging behind her
The darkroom, Poblenou · 2025Safelight

About

“I keep going back until the place forgets I am there.”

I photograph the same three places, over and over, and that is the whole method. The first night you photograph the place. The tenth night it stops performing, and you photograph what is actually happening. After seven years I still do not have the photograph I keep going down to the port for, which is why I keep going.

Born in Luleå in 1987, where the light is thin for half the year. In Barcelona since 2014, where it is not, which is probably why I still work at night and on rooftops. The three series are colour negative and I edit off my own contact sheets; the colour goes out as pigment prints, and the black and white I print by hand, under the safelight. Magazine work pays for the personal series.

Commissions and prints

Barcelona · Available for travel · Replies within two days

About eight commissions a year, and prints from all three series.

Editorial features, portraits on location, exhibition and book work. Keeping it to eight is the only way the personal series get made. Circle one on each strip.

01 · The commission

02 · Timeline

03 · Budget

Prints

40 × 60 cm ▸ edition of 7 ▸ from €900

60 × 90 cm ▸ edition of 5 ▸ from €1,800

Archival pigment · signed certificates · shipped flat within the EU

04 · Reply to

End of roll.

103 photographs kept since 2018 · Barcelona

Mara Lindqvist is a fictional photographer and the photographs were made for the concept. A SharpHaw concept build.

© 2026 Mara Lindqvist

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