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The Meaning of Photography
I’m not a competitive person, but I do enjoy a good challenge, especially when it pushes me to grow and involves some kind of learning. Today, Leica has proposed a challenge: they want us to show, through our own eyes, what photography means. I love this kind of challenge, so I’ve decided to take part in it. I’ve mentioned on several occasions that my relationship with photography has evolved over the years. It hasn’t always had the same meaning, the same value, or the same purpose in my life. When I was younger, it was all about learning, taking pictures…
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The Invisible Vastness
I enjoy many different photographic subjects and don’t want to box myself into any single category, but it’s true that some themes motivate me more than others. Looking through my photos, it’s clear that abandoned buildings are one of my favorite recurring subjects. I’m also very drawn to nature photography, whether it’s inland or coastal. Railway themes pop up from time to time, as do lighthouses and bridges. But there’s one genre I really love, even though I have to admit it tends to resist me: mountain photography. Despite the wear and tear it causes my car, I’ve driven countless…
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Perseverance and Its Rewards
Avilés had always been the great unknown of Asturias for me. The region’s two main cities, Gijón and Oviedo, tended to take all the spotlight, while Avilés remained a place I merely passed through, never actually stopping to visit. But this year, for the first time, I made a point of visiting, and since then I’ve returned many times. I’ve fallen in love with the city, its architecture, its streets, the Niemeyer Center, its compact and accessible layout, its industrial zone, its estuary, the surrounding areas, and its proximity to so many of Asturias’ breathtaking landscapes. Without meaning to offend…
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The Subjectivity of Appeal
La Mariña Lucense is well known for its many attractions, but I can assure you, the road isn’t one of them. It drives me absolutely crazy, constantly shifting speed limits: now 50… then back up to 80… a hundred meters later, down to 60… and don’t lose focus, because right after that, it drops again to 50. It feels like a concentration test, and after just a few kilometers you just want to get out of the car and scream. But despite the torture it represents, there’s one upside: you end up driving very slowly, and this area is full…
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Photographic Distance
When I first set off on my analog adventure, I started by focusing on my immediate surroundings. Many of the photographs I took during those first months were of places I already knew, and for the most part, I simply repeated shots I had taken before with other cameras and systems. That said, the experience was far from a mere replica of the past, because both the analog process and black-and-white format are so different from digital color photography, I felt it was something entirely new from the very beginning. What began as excitement over using a new format and…
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Photographic Link
Has it ever happened to you that something catches your eye while driving, you stop to take a photo of it, and end up photographing something completely different? That’s exactly what happened to me in Arbas del Puerto. Driving down from Asturias into León on the N-630, just after crossing the Puerto de Pajares, I passed through a small village that looked almost abandoned. What caught my attention was a group of stone houses on the left, traditional in style, and quite picturesque, so I pulled over to photograph them. But once I stood in front of them, the composition…
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Nature’s Sculptures
Galicia’s climate tends to be quite relentless. It has a reputation for being humid, rainy, windy, and generally unpleasant, at least when compared to the south of the Iberian Peninsula. But on those rare days when the sun comes out and the weather gives us a break, this land is so beautiful it almost hurts. All these climatic traits shape our landscape, and in certain places they leave a particularly distinct mark, such as in this small pine forest high up on “A Serra da Faladoira.” Pines are nature’s sculptures. Few trees are as malleable or as prone to absorbing…
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Rural Domestic Art
What is art? What can we truly consider a work of art? I know, it’s a rather lofty question for a blog post, especially one that features a photo of a chicken coop. So let me clarify right away: this question isn’t directed at my photograph. Honestly, when I head out with my camera slung around my neck, I don’t feel like I’m doing anything particularly artistic, nor do I believe the results of my photographic outings amount to works of art. Let’s be clear about that. On the contrary, the question refers directly to the subject of the photo.…
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Toll to a Visual Spectacle
I’m going to confess a secret, I don’t like paying on toll highways. I understand it’s a service offered by a private company, and it’s fair that they charge for a project that cost millions of euros. But it bothers me, it frustrates me that a private company profits from something I believe should be managed by the state. It’s a complex issue, one that involves political and economic considerations that I won’t delve into here. So why bring it up? Because it connects directly to the photo I’m sharing today. For those unfamiliar with the area, this place is…
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Dystopian Photography
The Yesa Reservoir, located in the province of Zaragoza, has been one of my greatest discoveries during my latest trip through northern Spain. From the moment I came across its waters, driving along secondary roads, I found myself stopping constantly, amazed mile after mile by a series of unique landscapes I simply couldn’t resist photographing. From its driftwood-covered shores and trees submerged in water, to abandoned structures, ruined buildings, gas stations turned into dystopian film sets, and even entire villages emptied of their inhabitants, every element surprises the visitor with a setting so unique and unusual, it makes you want…
