Xaume Olleros’s ‘Time’ has Come

Although born in Madrid, where he spent the first two years of his life, Xaume spent the rest of his youth in Valencia and is now based in Hong Kong, from where he recently made the cover of Time Magazine with a photo, taken on 29^th September 2014, of the student demonstration time in Hong Kong, known as the umbrella revolution.

Xaume, after working for several international media clients such as Getty Images, joined the AFP early in the autumn of 2014, and although prestigious, the publication in Time is not the first of his work to appear in the international press. Olleros has seen his work published in such varied media as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Independent and Vanity Fair among others.

Xaume, who studied at Valencia’s Lycée Français, was a student of business studies at Valencia University and then worked for four years in a bank before pursuing his true love, photography (his first camera was a present from his uncle when he was 16), obtaining some work for the newspaper El Mundo and finding time to create the Photon International Festival, for which he is still a jury member. He studied Photography at ESAD in Valencia and a Master in photojournalism in Barcelona.

He was about to try his luck in London or Paris, when the Hong Kong opportunity came along, and he didn’t think twice before leaving Valencia behind, he just made up his mind about what he was going to do.

What he found in Hong Kong amazed him, it was so different, East meeting West. The Asian food was extraordinary, although a good paella was sorely missed, as is his family, and his favourite Valencian bar, Gestalguinos

The Cantonese language has proved challenging, as has the high level of pollution, but he considers himself lucky that every day is different, full of the unexpected, and that he can continue to develop professionally, and just keep going wherever jobs and circumstances lead him.