ARTISTIC PORTFOLIO

by Rosa Franco Mendoza

Photobook DECLARED VALUES

Eighteen years of building a memory

DECLARED VALUES is a documentary project developed between 2007 and 2025 about Barcelona's Palace of Posts and Telegraphs, one of the city's most emblematic buildings.

For eighteen years, I photographed its spaces, transformations, and ways of inhabiting it, building a visual archive that documents the memory of an institution, an architectural landmark, and the people who made it possible.

The project takes the form of a 184-page photobook featuring a selection of images made over this period, inviting reflection on heritage, work, time, and the transformation of shared spaces.

More than documenting a building, DECLARED VALUES explores the human traces left behind as places change.

Building the book

In 2023, I devoted all my energy to the Postgraduate Program in Creation and Reflection at IEFC, where I worked on editing the book.

The process began with Roger Grasas, continued with Alex Llovet and was finally completed with my tutor, Josep M. Llobet.

During this process I realised that editing wasn't simply about selecting photographs. It was about deciding what I wanted to say, what should remain and what could disappear.

The archive I had built up over the years contained far more images than could ultimately be included in the book. The task was to find a structure that could turn this collection of photographs into a narrative.

And here’s something that has been fundamental for me: an eighteen-year project needs time to find its own shape.