This Saturday, the legendary photographer Toni Riera repeated his well-known photograph of Montesol with characters from the world of Ibizan nightlife. This is the fifth time that the prestigious Catalan photographer has taken this photograph, which has already become an icon. On this occasion, the promoter of this photograph has been the magazine L’Officiel, which has commissioned Riera to create a new updated edition. For this edition, the cast of characters portrayed ranges from Ricardo Urgell, founder of Pacha; Joan Gracia, Francisco Ferrer or Carlos Martorell, to DJs of the caliber of Roger Sánchez or Luciano, who posed with his family.
Also posing were the vocalist of the band Moloko, Roisin Murphy, the stylist Marcelo Burlón, Merel and Alde, from World Family, the head of L’Oficiel, Rocco Attisani and a long list of friends and models. For the production of the photograph, Riera had a crane and a large human team that included his inseparable Luis-on, Pia Verhelst and Teo Riera. An entire infrastructure that is far from the first edition of this photograph in 1976 when, as the photographer remembers, “we took it from the balcony in front of the hotel, which was the Matutes’ house. “I didn’t even have a megaphone to direct people and I used a light bulb that, when it went on, they knew they had to pose.”
A photograph that arose when “Ricardo Urgell asked me for a photo to make posters of Pachá and it occurred to me to gather popular people of that time to pose at Montesol.”
On that occasion, Riera remembers that “at the time of taking the photo, no one we had called had shown up, we had to go look for them one by one wherever they were.”
The other editions of this photograph were made during the following decades: the second in 1986, the third in 2006 and the fourth in 2016.
“The second year we already had a scaffolding,” recalls Luis-on, Riera’s assistant, who explains that “over the years many things have changed, such as the trees that have grown and, on other occasions we had to move the branches with ropes so that they would not get in the way of the photo.
There are few characters who have repeated themselves on the Montesol balconies, “but from the first photograph I think they have all already died,” the photographer points out before rectifying: “Only the baby that comes out remains alive and, 25 years later, I “Someone introduced me and with whom I still keep in touch.”
