Press Kit

Cosme Lapena — street and urban photographer, Barcelona

Portrait of photographer Cosme Lapena in a bucket hat and glasses, smiling and pointing to his framed photographs on the wall at PH21 Gallery, Barcelona.

Everything an editor, curator or gallery may need in one place: bios, artist statement, exhibitions, publications and high-resolution images cleared for editorial use. For anything else, write to cosme@bclphoto.com.

Short bio

Cosme Lapena is a Barcelona-based street and urban photographer working under the name bCLPhoto. For more than 25 years he has photographed the city's streets, architecture and reflections, where Barcelona often appears twice in a single frame. His work has been published by The Eye of Photography and 35mmc and exhibited at PH21 Gallery and espai [b].

Long bio

Cosme Lapena is a street and urban photographer based in Barcelona, where he publishes his work as bCLPhoto. He first picked up a camera at fifteen, wandering the city with his father's Voigtländer, and for the past 25 years has pursued photography with growing intensity.

His work moves between three territories: street photography, urban architecture and reflections. Shop windows, glass façades, rain and still water let him show the city twice in one image, the street and its double layered together. This thread runs through his most recent work and has taken it furthest.

Barcelona is his main subject, but travel keeps his eye fresh: New York, London, Istanbul, Prague and Warsaw all appear in his archive. He works with a Leica Q3 and a Sony a7R IV.

Since 2010 he has taken part in five group exhibitions at espai [b], a contemporary art gallery in Gràcia, Barcelona. In November 2026 three of his reflections were shown at PH21 Gallery in In Dialogue with StreetMax21. In 2026 The Eye of Photography published his portfolio Barcelona Twice, and he contributes regularly to 35mmc.

He describes himself as an amateur, in the original sense of the word: someone who photographs out of love for it.

Artist statement

I photograph the city as I walk it: without a plan, camera in hand, paying attention to what most people pass without noticing. Increasingly, I find the city in its reflections. A shop window, a glass façade or a puddle after the rain shows Barcelona twice in a single frame, the street and its double, and the image sits somewhere between the two.

I am drawn to the moment when architecture and people meet: a figure crossing a white wall, a child passing a mirrored façade, a still body in a moving crowd. I don't stage or composite my street work. What I am after is attention, the sense of being more awake in a place I thought I already knew.

Selected exhibitions

2026 — In Dialogue with StreetMax21, PH21 Gallery, Barcelona (group show, 3–19 November)

2026 — 100x100PHOTO, espai [b], Barcelona (with Jordi Comes and Benet Solina, 1–23 October)

2025 — 100x100PHOTO, espai [b], Barcelona (three-photographer show, 30 January – 21 February)

2023–24 — Christmas Group Show, espai [b], Barcelona

2016 — En Sèrie, espai [b], Barcelona

2010–11 — 100x100 PHOTO, espai [b], Barcelona

Full exhibition history, with posters and photos: bclphoto.com/exhibitions

Publications

2026 — "Standing Still in the Glass", One Shot Story, 35mmc (October)

2026 — "Barcelona Twice", weekend portfolio, The Eye of Photography / L'Œil de la Photographie (October)

2026 — "Two Cameras, One City", article, 35mmc (September)

Press images

High-resolution images (3000 px, JPEG) including a portrait, are available for editorial use in connection with my work, exhibitions or publications. Please credit "© Cosme Lapena / bCLPhoto". Images may not be cropped, altered or used for commercial purposes without written permission.

Download press images (ZIP)
A lone figure stands still inside the glass doors of Prague's National Theatre, the arched stone entrance and the façades across the street layered into a single reflection.
A couple seen from behind looks up at a tall brick wall in Plaça dels Àngels, El Raval, Barcelona, painted with dripping rainbow stripes, the MACBA banner on the right.
A Charlie Chaplin mannequin in bowler hat and bow tie stands in a Barcelona shop window, the street and its evening lights reflected across the glass.
A tall white cubic building with small square windows rises above graffiti-covered walls in El Raval, Barcelona, a lone pedestrian crossing the street below.
A little girl on a balance bike stops to look up at a huge wall of rusted steel panels in Barcelona, dwarfed by the architecture around her.
A woman dressed entirely in artificial flowers, with matching hat and shoes, sits smiling on a bench on Warsaw's Royal Route.
The white ribs of Santiago Calatrava's Oculus frame a glass tower in Lower Manhattan, its façade reflecting the older skyscrapers around it.
Players on an indoor basketball court in Barcelona seen through a glass wall, the legs of passers-by and the street outside reflected over the game.
Silhouettes of people at the end of a dark passage in Barcelona, the sunlit street and its balconies reflected on the polished floor.
A street worker in a yellow high-visibility uniform stands in a Barcelona square, he and the classical buildings behind him mirrored in a dark marble surface.

Contact

Cosme Lapena — bCLPhoto

Barcelona, Spain

cosme@bclphoto.com

Instagram: @bclphoto_

bclphoto.com