Hedonistic pictures of Barcelona’s queer underworld Favorite 

Topless queer men light spliffs on the beach. A trans man injects testosterone on the toilet. Drag queens nonchalantly scroll through their phones and smoke. These are just some of the images that make up the new book from Leo Adef. Titled WARP, it’s comprised of photographs captured across four years spent in Barcelona's queer underworld

The artist -- born in Buenos Aires, Argentina -- started their project in 2018, documenting their life in Barcelona on video camera. Be it parties, sexual encounters or shoots with queer icons like Arca, all the moments captured were shot on film. Then from these films came thousands of screengrabs -- murky, heavy with grain, almost hallucinatory -- that Leo has condensed into 200 snapshots of the city's modern LGBTQ+ history. It is, with its frank and uncensored vision, an exposing and joyful collection of images. Here, alongside an exclusive first look at some of these pictures, Leo explains how WARP came to be.

What have you learned about Barcelona as a city through its queer scene? What are its people like?
My vision and experience in Barcelona have changed a lot from the moment I arrived until now. I came from Buenos Aires eight years ago, and now my perception of the city is totally different. Four years ago, when I started this project, we started with a group of friends to generate safe spaces, parties and meetings for those who, like us, couldn't find places where we could be ourselves. What I like about the process of this book is that I have been able to capture all those moments and people that were part of this fast-growing community. Nowadays, we have a stronger queer community in Barcelona, and I feel very proud of that. I'm in love with the people that I've met here, and they inspire me too. I love taking a look around me and finding queer, non-binary, trans, Latin, POC, non-normative artists, performers, cyborgs and activists that are making this world a better and more inclusive place.