David Barreiro, A Estrada (Spain), 1982, studied photography at EFTI school (Madrid), getting his Master degree in documentary photography in september 2012. He has been working independently in the last three years on his personal work in Iceland, Spain and Cambodia, which can be seen at his website . In december 2012 he had a solo exhibition at the art gallery Ófeigur Gullsmiðja in Reykjavik and in 2013 he was selected as a finalist in Roma photo festival Open Call.
In 2007, a year before the global economic crisis was to appear in Iceland, the works to create in Úlfarsfell area an urban complex of large single-family houses were developing apace. The workers, machinery and construction material in many cases were paid with credit from the now infamous Icelandic banking system. The beneficiaries of these loans were ultimately the companies and individuals working in their self-financed new homes. However, nothing seemed to suggest what was to come.
The current state of the neighborhood of Úlfarsfell (“Wolf Hill” in Icelandic) is connected one way or another with these events. The area seems like a town where people try to return to normal after the devastating consequences of war. Children build their huts with work material, the construction work taking place slowly here and there and the brand new recently completed chalets necessarily coexist with rubble and disused cranes. Some of the locals just got their houses, bought at a bargain price taking advantage of the bankruptcy of its former owner. Others enjoy long views of the valley and the local football field from their spacious newly finished homes. A few have been forced to start living at home still unfinished because of the rise in mortgage banking.
Ultimately this work intend to raise questions about the bidirectional links between the individual and his environment, and induce reflection on the dominant values in countries with free market systems and class aspirations in that context.
