Daniel Barreto’s Photo Manipulation Series of Floating “Lonely Islands”

Mexican born artist Daniel Barreto, now living and working in Boston, creates photo manipulations that express his desire to reconnect to nature. His works combine the use of traditional mediums used to create his subjects with that of technology. Barreto describes his images as naïve, even childlike. “I hope to provoke an inner curiosity by examining the interactions between humans and nature, or the lack thereof,” he writes in his artist statement. His most recent series, “Lonely Islands”, makes these observations with a simple concept. The series portrays mysteriously lonesome islands, disconnected and floating through the vastness of space. Lighting their path is the luminosity of the moon and the sun, creating abstract and almost ominous silhouettes. The only trace of mankind is in the street lamps and traffic lights that protrude from their land masses, like the lure of an anger fish in the deep sea. Barreto adds, “We must contemplate until something good washes up onto the shoreline of our imagination. After all, we are just islands in a big sea of collective experiences.”