“I was driving around the island one morning when I spotted the back door of an old Renault 4 lying by some bins. It caught my attention because my first ever car was a Renault 4 so I have always had huge nostalgia for this iconic model. Something started whirring in my brain so I stopped and took it home where after some thought, I decided it would make a perfect frame for black and white photographs. The very next day I started the Renault 4 life project by taking portraits of my friends and then started to visit farmers to ask them if they would sell me the doors from their old abandoned Renault 4 cars. You wouldn’t believe how many are here! And yes I have to admit, collecting them has become something of an obsession for me. I lost count of how many I have a long time ago!”
Hailing from an artistic family including a mother who still enjoys sculpture, Sandra de Keller is one of these brilliant and fascinating people who helps make Ibiza the most unique island on the planet. Born in Geneva, she studied design at Elisava in Barcelona before working freelance as a stylist and agent for architectural and design printed media. Life though took a welcomed turn one afternoon in 2008 when she spotted a Leica M6 camera in a shop window whilst living in Asia. It was she confesses, “love at first sight” and a career in photography and art duly began.
Sandra’s Renault 4 Life photo installations have been shown all around the world including the Leica Gallery in Los Angeles and the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna – and although private commissions are still available, we hear a new “abstract project” is just around the corner…
