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 work made in Barcelona since 2018. Three series, 103 photographs kept: the working port at night, the rooftops above the street, the R1 ridden north along the coast.

Commissions →

The contact sheet

№01 · 01APortra 800
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
Nits del Port · Moll dels Pescadors · 2021
№02 · 02APortra 800
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
Nits del Port · Port Vell · 2022
№03 · 03APortra 800
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
Nits del Port · Barceloneta · 2020
№04 · 04APortra 400
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
Els Terrats · Gràcia · 2023
№05 · 05APortra 400
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
Els Terrats · El Raval · 2024
№06 · 06APortra 400
Rusted water tanks and a thicket of television aerials in silhouette against a deep dusk sky, one lit stairwell window, swifts overhead
Els Terrats · Poble-sec · 2022
№07 · 07APortra 400
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
La Costa · Between Montgat and Ocata · 2019
№08 · 08APortra 400
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
La Costa · Sant Pol de Mar · 2020

End of roll

Series
№01 / 08

Eight years in three places, 103 photographs kept. These are the selects.

2019 — ongoing · 34 photographs

Nits del Port

The boats come in at four, while the city is still asleep. The light down there is sodium, not sun, and nobody performs for a camera at that hour.

№01 · 01A
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
Moll dels Pescadors · 2021
№02 · 02A
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
Port Vell · 2022
№03 · 03A
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
Barceloneta · 2020

2022 — 2024 · 28 photographs

Els Terrats

Three floors up, Barcelona keeps its washing, its water tanks and its privacy. Nobody looks up.

№04 · 04A
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
Gràcia · 2023
№05 · 05A
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
El Raval · 2024
№06 · 06A
Rusted water tanks and a thicket of television aerials in silhouette against a deep dusk sky, one lit stairwell window, swifts overhead
Poble-sec · 2022

2018 — 2020 · 41 photographs

La Costa

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.

№07 · 07A
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
Between Montgat and Ocata · 2019
№08 · 08A
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
Sant Pol de Mar · 2020
№09 · 09A
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
Morning train to Mataró · 2019
A dockworker coiling rope on the wet quay under a single sodium lamp at night, his breath in the cold air, the dark bow of a trawler filling the right of the frame
Commissions and prints →
PortraitSafelight
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 · 2025

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, and the personal series are why the magazines call.

Commissioned for

  • Editorial features
  • Portraiture on location
  • Documentary essays
  • Books and exhibitions

Commissions and prints

Mara Lindqvist

Editorial features, portraits on location, exhibition work and archival prints from the three series. I take on about eight commissions a year, which is the only way the personal work gets made.

Barcelona · Available for travel · Replies within two days

studio@maralindqvist.com

Prints

Archival pigment prints from all three series: 40 × 60 cm in editions of 7 from €900; 60 × 90 cm in editions of 5 from €1,800. Certificates signed, shipped flat within the EU.