Pia Riverola’s sunny new book captures a life of travel

Looking at Pia Riverola‘s work, it makes sense that the Spanish photographer wanted to be a flight attendant when she was little – an unwavering urge to travel clearly never left her. Published by Loose Joints, her second book Day brings together images shot around the world over the past six years, sensitively sequenced to mimic the passing of a day. Effortless and gestural, the book is a flood of dappled light and natural moments shared by people, evoking memories of vacations while paying homage to the cultures and places that shaped it.

Released in 2022, the image maker first book was a devotional document of Mexico City, a place Riverola moved to in her early twenties to escape the complicated family life in her native Barcelona. It collages a decade of beautiful, casual photographs of the city’s diverse characters, bustling markets, nature and architecture, capturing a time of personal growth in the place where the self-taught photographer first found her feet as an artist. She gave it the fitting title Fleckwhich literally means ‘love at first sight’.

“My first book focused on a very specific time in my life, a move to Mexico at a young age,” says Riverola, who now lives in L.A. but still visits Mexico City about once a month. “In a way, it was a journey of self-discovery and an ode to the country that allowed me to grow during some very important years in my life. Day is a more accurate representation of my current time, a body of work that introduces many different subjects and themes and feels complete. A journey of memories, the moments I cherish the most.”

In the years since her move to Mexico, Riverola has built a diverse body of work that includes fashion, still life, landscape and architectural photography. She has photographed for Fashion and Loewe traveled to Rio’s iconoclastic Copacabana Palace and visited Enrique Olvera’s chic modernist home for Apartment. The title of a recent exhibition focusing on photographs taken in Japan at the Homecoming Gallery, Yugen, perfectly captures the exhilarating effect of her work. The word refers to an aesthetic ideal in Buddhist teachings, where a deeper beauty beyond what we see is implied by glimpses or fragments.

In Daya tapestry of these glimpses intertwine, taking the viewer on a journey that evokes sentimental notes of joy and introspection. A soft breeze blows through lace curtains in the Mediterranean; plastic tables and chairs set the scene for a lunch in Laos; and the silhouette of a couple on a motorbike tears away into a burning Hawaiian sunset. “‘I often find myself observing routines and everyday moments,’ says the photographer. ‘Gestures, a sunset, objects placed in certain places, the remains of a long lunch, everyday errands. Moments that don’t seem important, but are the way our days pass. They give me a sense of routine, even though I don’t really have one, and they make me feel at home.’

Day combines footage of travels with friends and work assignments in Italy, Japan, Laos and Hawaii, with solo expeditions to places like Bhutan, India, the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica – a trip that was special for the photographer. “All the photos from the trip to Antarctica feel very personal,” she says. “Being there gave me the chance to explore my work in a different way, because (the landscape) is untouched by people, very pure and raw. It’s a place I knew I probably wouldn’t return to, so it gave me the chance to be very present and realize the grandeur of nature.”

Printed in a heavy, hardcover, quarter-bound linen, on which watercolor-like flowers fade into inky darkness, the book is an object to cherish and a portal to escape into when the days are bleak. It launches alongside two large-scale prints and an exhibition at CCProjects in New York, opening September 5. “Traveling makes me appreciate every human connection, every moment, more and more and how grateful I am to be able to experience different cultures and continue to learn from them,” says Riverola. “I hope it tells a different story to everyone, that it feels personal to them, or that they can relate to it in some way.”

Day by Pia Riverola is published by Loose Joints and is available now.