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A close-up of a person’s legs and hand, showing the textured appearance of cellulite on the thighs. They wear a light-coloured, pleated dress and sit beside dark green water.

Alba Yruela's natural photography full of light and female forms (NSFW-ish)

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Date
10 March 2017

Barcelona-based photographer Alba Yruela’s work is full of light, shadows, and goosebumps. Working primarily in fashion portraiture and documentary projects, her work has been exhibited across Europe and the United States, as well as being featured in Dazed and Confused, Neon, Vice, Vogue and Lula Japan.

For Alba her introduction to photography was natural. “I guess I started, as so many others, shooting my friends. It was a purely innocent act of documenting my life.” Alba ventured into photography during the golden age of the Flickr community. “At the beginning I didn’t want to show my photographs to anyone. Later I went on to Flickr where I started to publish my work. It was pretty amazing because for the first time I got to know lots of other worlds that encouraged me to shoot.”

Influenced by the likes of “Akari, Tilmans, Lina Scheynius, Harley Weir, Jody Rogac and Lena C. Emery,” Alba’s process depends on the project at hand. “Most of the time I work with natural light and outside locations. I like to travel to my hometown where I know a lot of beautiful places that are also great to shoot stories.” Light is a constant feature in Alba’s work, resulting in photographs that feel very of-a-moment and un-staged.

In this series featured Alba predominantly focuses upon women. To cast her subjects the photographer tries to find, “people who can understand the natural and enjoy the shooting as if it were a collaboration. I look for calmness and beauty in every model”.

2017 is an exciting year for the photographer who will “be travelling to London a lot next spring and summer, a place that I love both for working and hanging”. Alba is also hoping to self-publish a series of small books about her frequent travelling. “The first one is about Tokyo and it’s almost ready…”

A person with short blonde hair looks over their shoulder at the camera. They are seen from behind, wearing a cropped, peach-coloured faux-fur top.
A person stands with arms outstretched, wearing a sheer, long-sleeved white dress. They are positioned against a dark, blurred backdrop of trees and water.
Above

Alba Yruela

A person in white clothing reclines on a dark, rocky slope. A soft, glowing white light surrounds their body, contrasting against the deep black background.
Above

Alba Yruela

A landscape of jagged, layered rock formations with sharp, angular edges. Smooth, rounded pebbles in shades of beige and grey are scattered across the upper left.
Above

Alba Yruela

A close-up of a person wearing a sheer, pleated white garment. A wide band of translucent fabric is wrapped around the waist, featuring a metallic gold abstract shape.
Above

Alba Yruela

Three people lie curled together on a large, grey rock. They wear light-coloured and black clothing, their limbs entwined in a close embrace.
Above

Alba Yruela

A close-up profile of a person with their eyes closed. The shadow of a delicate plant branch is cast across their face in bright sunlight.
Above

Alba Yruela

A person in a white shirt and beige trousers sits atop a white horse. They look down, their profile backlit by a bright, hazy sun.
Above

Alba Yruela

A wide shot of a sandy beach under a heavy, overcast sky. Dark storm clouds gather on the left, while a small, dry shrub sits in the foreground.
Above

Alba Yruela

A person stands in profile, wearing an oversized white shirt. Strong light casts a geometric shadow across the wall behind them.
Above

Alba Yruela

A tall, slender pine tree with a rounded canopy of green needles towers over a forest. It leans slightly to the left against a clear, pale blue sky.
Above

Alba Yruela

A person lies on their back on a rocky hillside, eyes closed and head resting on a white knitted blanket. They wear a dark, floral-patterned dress, with a dense forest of green trees rising in the background.
Above

Alba Yruela

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

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Lucy (she/her) was part of the It’s Nice That team from 2016–2025, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication, eventually becoming a senior editor on our editorial team, and most recently at Insights, a research-driven department with It’s Nice That.

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