Photography Exhibition in Barcelona: 100x100PHOTO at Espai [b]

On the evening of 1 October, the spotlights came on behind the shop window at Luis Antúnez 10, and 100x100PHOTO opened its doors. It is a photography exhibition in Barcelona shared by three friends, Jordi Comes, Benet Solina and me, at Espai [b], a small gallery in Gràcia. Each of us brought around a hundred photographs.

Lights on at Espai[b] — Leica Q3

From the street, the gallery reads like a lit box set into a grey façade. Under the dark Espai[b] art sign, the doorway frames the 100x100PHOTO poster and two visitors already leaning in towards the first prints. In the left-hand window, a ceramic dog stands with its back to the street, as if it had come in early to look at the walls. Behind it, columns of small prints run from floor to ceiling.

I have hung my work before, and so have Jordi and Benet. Even so, I will admit that the three of us were a little nervous that afternoon. You can choose and print and hang everything carefully, and still not know how people will receive it until they walk in.

My first show at Espai[b] was back in 2010, with a single photograph; you can follow the whole journey on my exhibition history page.

Last-minute touches before the opening

The final touches were still being made on the day itself. I printed small cards with a QR code that leads to my newsletter sign-up, and we set out biscuits and drinks for whoever came through the door.

The guard dog — Leica Q3

This corner by the window sums up the afternoon. The poster gives the dates and our three names above a strip of images: a fairground wheel, a woman dressed in flowers, dry leaves on concrete. Below it, an iMac loops a slideshow, here stopped on a black-and-white staircase. And on the right, a ceramic bulldog with a spiked collar turns its back on the street and bares its teeth at whoever walks in, while scooters line the pavement outside and a passer-by glances through the glass.

The weather nearly had the last word. A warning for heavy storms had been issued for that evening, and it cost us a good number of visitors. Many people sent their apologies, put off by the unsettled forecast. Even so, we still had a good crowd.

Three photographers, one conversation

Jordi, Cosme and Benet — Leica Q3

From left to right: Jordi Comes, me and Benet Solina, standing in front of a wall where our photographs hang side by side. We are close friends who go out shooting together, but we do not work the same way or with the same tools. Most of my prints were made with the Leica Q3, some with the Sony A7R IV. Jordi shoots Nikon, Benet shoots Canon, and both of them also make many of their pictures with a phone.

None of us has a wall of his own. Some three hundred prints are mixed throughout the gallery, so the visitor moves from one way of seeing to another without being told.

One column, many cities — Leica Q3

We hung the 15x20 cm prints together, the three of us at once, working by colour. We grouped warm tones with warm tones and slipped black-and-white images in among the colour ones, partly by plan and partly by instinct. This single column runs from a bare tree against brick and a mannequin window to a bunch of red tulips, a black-and-white staircase and a delivery rider passing a shuttered herbalist's shop.
Shop windows like that mannequin display run through much of my work; the most recent example is a September walk chasing Prague reflections in glass, mirrors and the Vltava.

Prints in conversation — Leica Q3

Close up, each print holds its own; at a distance, they start talking to each other. In this block of nine, the red lanterns of a bar answer a red column and a red staircase inside a tunnel. A gold sheet caught in dry reeds sits in the middle, between a hillside of terracotta rooftops above the sea and that red column.

Inside the photography exhibition at Espai[b]

A working gallery — Leica Q3

Espai[b] is a working gallery, and it shows. Between the walls of photographs stands a wooden plan chest, with a row of canvases leaning against its drawers, and through the open doors you can see the stockroom racks. Our small prints run in columns along every wall, and one corner holds the framed pieces.

The framed corner — Leica Q3

Those framed prints show the two formats the gallery offers as standard, 40x50 and 50x70 cm. Any of the 15x20 prints on the walls can be ordered in either size, and larger on request. The six on display range from dry leaves on concrete and a fairground wheel under misty mountains to a multiple exposure of a busy street, a chandelier above a double staircase, and a gold sheet caught in dry reeds.

First print sold — Leica Q3

The sixth is the woman in the flower dress, and she became the first print of the night to sell. I photographed her in Warsaw, sitting on a wooden bench in a dress, hat and shoes made entirely of artificial flowers, a large butterfly on her chest and a phone in her gloved hand. She appears on the exhibition poster too, so perhaps it was fitting. You can see more of my work from the road in my travel photography portfolio.

The people in front of the prints

Opening-night conversations — Leica Q3

What struck me most this time was the way people looked. They did not walk the walls at a polite distance. They stopped, leaned in, pointed out details to each other and talked about what they saw. Many came to us with questions about a particular picture, and some of those questions turned into the best conversations of the evening.

I kept the camera close and photographed that attention rather than the walls. A woman lifted her phone to photograph a print, a small act of photographing photographs. Three visitors stood in front of the column of vertical prints, one of them pointing. Two others studied a wall side by side, one with hands clasped behind the back. A man smiled beside a friend who had his hand on one of the prints, and a woman reached up to show her companion one image near the top of the grid.

By the time we closed, the storm had not cost us the night. We left happy with the photographs we had chosen and with the work behind them.

Visiting 100x100PHOTO in Barcelona

The exhibition runs until 23 October 2026 at Espai[b], Luis Antúnez 10, 08006 Barcelona. The gallery is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 17:00 to 20:00. If you are looking for a photography exhibition in Barcelona this month, some three hundred small windows onto the world are waiting on those walls.

Prints are available in 40x50 and 50x70 cm, and larger on request; ask at the gallery or see the exhibition page on the Espai[b] website. My own photographs can also be ordered as fine art prints here on the site.

Come and see the walls in person, bring your questions, and tell us which print stopped you.

Photos: Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7–2.8 · 1/125s · ISO 100–200 · Barcelona, 2026

See more street photography from Barcelona in the portfolio.

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Cosme Lapena is a Barcelona-based street and urban photographer and founder of bCLPhoto. Browse the portfolio or read more on the blog.