FRAMES OF WATER

Spanish cinematographer Borja Llorens returned to the coast of Alicante to visually explore his relationship with water through kayaking, cave exploration, and night diving.

"I like simple, minimal images. Everything has to flow, and be easy, beautiful, and tactile. If what you shoot has something slightly off, that’s good.”

It’s no surprise that Spanish cinematographer Borja Llorens’ images look the way they do. Growing up around Jávea and Moraira on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, surrounded by cliffs, coves and the sea, Borja has been close to the elements since he was a kid, climbing, diving, running and hiking whenever he gets the chance.

"I don't have a background in art or cinema. I think my aesthetic relates more to enjoying the sea, the Mediterranean, and my environment and a will to show and capture its beauty."

The presence of water, rocks, sky and sunlight, combined with the human body in motion, is a near-constant in his work, from his commercials for sports brands to his shorts ”Pools” and ”Cliffs”.

The stills and films presented here were shot around Jávea and Moraira, Alicante, in June 2026.

Borja Llorens’ style is reduced, physical, and granular, with a sense of visual inevitability. Nothing is in the frame that shouldn’t be there. He plays with time, slowing the tempo down and bringing it back to normal in expertly modulated shifts. It’s almost ritualistic.

Legendary Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman once described the defining principle of Claire Denis’ ”Beau Travail” as “kinesthetic immersion.” Borja’s images evoke a similar sensation through their hypnotic, viscerally gripping quality, as seen in commercials for Adidas, Puma, and Hermès, as well as in his own shorts made in collaboration with director Beltrán González.

Besides being a reflection of the elemental beauty of the environment he grew up in, Borja’s visual sensibility is shaped by his obsession with images as language.

”I enjoy films that have this cohesiveness. The more cohesive you are, the more you're succeeding at creating a concept of language, because you're working with fewer tools, so you're doing something more specific.”

Specificity and simplicity are essential to what he does. Achieving that requires thought and constant work figuring out how best to articulate something visually.

”Each film is asking for something. It has these specific questions, and they're easy to answer if you feel aligned with the project.”

There’s a precision to Borja’s obsession that perhaps isn’t that surprising, since he grew up in a family of engineers. He initially followed the technical path himself, studying engineering. But the visual world soon pulled him toward the art of film. He studied audiovisual communication and did a master's in cinematography at a film school in Barcelona.

“When I moved to Barcelona, I wanted to get more into art because I felt my background was just technical. I made new friends who were into cinema, formed new relationships, and built an artistic foundation. It was super-helpful for me.” With his engineering background and aesthetic sensibility, he is perhaps perfectly suited for the role of cinematographer. “A shoot always involves problem-solving”, he points out. But you still “have to be and feel like an artist, adding shots, removing shots, trying to change ideas, adding to everything that's already there.”

At the end of the day, it all comes down to doing what he loves. He started filming his brother, cousin and himself during diving and climbing expeditions as a teenager, simply because it was fun. That youthful passion for movement, nature and the numerous ways you shape an image is still with him more than ever. And he sees it all around him:

“Some of the best people in the industry are like little kids. You have to still take it with that childlike joy and motivation. You have to feel it in your heart, and it has to be fun, to give everything to it.”

The dedication he feels for his art means inspiration rarely has to be sought out. When he needs it, he finds it nearby:

“Like yesterday, I was paddling in the middle of the sea after a summer storm, and there was this astonishing sky during the sunset, with strong, warm colors. Just watching something as simple as that inspires me.”