From where there is no return is a selection of 80 photographs from the celebrated Spanish photographer Alberto García-Alix’s ambitious project, De donde no se vuelve.

This photographic narrative, spanning more than 30 years, records the composition, light, shadow and poetics of life in Madrid, Paris and Beijing. Using photography as his journal, Alberto García-Alix takes viewers on a trip to the other side of life to capture, with great dignity and humanity, people and places rarely portrayed in art. The subjects passing before his lens are people and places he encounters every day: himself, his friends, his street acquaintances, the pavement and the cement buildings where he once lived. His camera brings sex workers, tattoo parlors, transvestites, lovers, enemies, battles and kisses together in one long poetic journey through his life.

With his camera as a constant companion, García-Alix maintains the integrity of photography, shooting with film and lovingly developing each photograph by hand in his darkroom. Every image is an unbridled portrait of the artist’s life; every print reflects the intimate chemistry by which he develops that image. Combined in this solo exhibition at UCCA, they form a singular and evocative witness to history.