“Memory. A Play of Twos” by HEREU

There are aspects of life in which we seem to live in constant dialogue with the past — reminiscing, comparing, missing, remembering, hurting… In others, we exist focusing firmly in the present, almost forgetting about what came before and trying to conceive the possibilities of the future. And then, there are rare moments when we pause and look back on the path behind us, proudly recognizing how far we’ve come and who we’ve become along the way.

Memory. A Play of Twos, a photobook that marks a decade of HEREU’s creative exploration, emerged from one of those special moments. “The idea was born out of a need to stop and look back after ten years of collecting images around HEREU,” explain José Luis Bartolomé and Albert Escribano, founders of the brand. In limited edition format, this publication presents a visual and introspective celebration of the HEREU’s artistic community and origins. 

“We wanted to celebrate this decade not with a summary, but with a visual proposal that would speak of our universe in a more artistic and open way.” In other words, “the book thus becomes a natural extension of the brand: a way to explore our visual memory from a freer and more intuitive place.” 

HEREU’s evolution has taken place hand in hand with photographers from around the world, therefore transforming this photobook also into a tribute to all of those collaborations. “From the beginning, photographers have been fundamental in shaping HEREU’s visual identity. We have worked with artists who share our sensibility and who, with their gaze, have enriched and expanded the brand’s imaginary,” they describe.

Over the years, HEREU invited artists to share a single image in return for a piece from the collection, a gesture of mutual appreciation, and expressive exchange. These photographs, once turned into postcards, are now curated together in this book. “The postcards allowed us to look at the images outside the usual format of a digital file. By printing them and having them physically, we could play with them, look for connections, and let unexpected combinations appear.” A tactile and affective dimension that lead to memory and travel.

After putting together a wide and cherished collection of images from all kinds of artists, places, and times, the two minds chose the pairs guided by one thing and one thing only: intuition. “We chose photographs that, although very different from each other, shared a sensibility close to HEREU’s universe: Mediterranean scenes, everyday life, the time spent on vacation, the customs and manners from a contemporary point of view.”

As the title of the book suggests, the concept is about coupling images from different photographers, times, and places, brought together by a sense of connection: by shape, color, rhythm, or simply a mood. Each pair bonds and reveals a resonance, an unexpected dialogue. Not only that, but this duality is present on many levels: “it reflects the structure of the book, but also our way of working as a creative couple, as a brand that always starts from the encounter between two perspectives.” 

Memory. A Play of Twos reflects the brand’s philosophy in their characteristic way of observing: slow, attentive, and sensitive to time and details. “Like our collections, the book works with the idea of memory, of reinterpretation, of dialogue between the traditional and the contemporary,” they state. “It also highlights the collective, the artisanal and the emotional, values that are at the heart of everything we do at HEREU.”

The book closes with a text that draws on these layered recollections and the ways in which separate experiences meet to form a new one. Offering an intimate look into the brand’s vision, José Luis and Albert invite the reader to look calmly, to find their own ties, and to understand that HEREU is not only a brand but a broader cultural project where tradition meets abstraction and collaboration is a form of storytelling.