The documentary photographer Samuel Nacar, who in 2021 won the II Joana Biarnés Scholarship for Young Photojournalists, shows the results of his scholarship project in the exhibition “Cartas a Mariví. La búsqueda de nuestra generación para encontrar un lugar en este mundo”, which you can visit from February 4 to March 19 at Efti – International Photography and Film Center (c/ Fuenterrabía, 4. Madrid).
The exhibition, produced and curated by Photographic Social Vision, is the result of Samuel Nacar‘s research on a generation doomed to precariousness, young people without opportunities in their land, who emigrate to the big cities of the peninsula. They leave peripheral Spain, a territory about which almost nothing is told and whose industrial dismantling produces a progressive abandonment, generating an empty Spain.
“This project stems from my interest in portraying that Spain and explaining how the structural weakness of our industry causes a domino effect that ends with the depopulation of our geography,” explains Samuel Nacar.
Maria Victoria Ortiz is from Miranda de Ebro, she migrated to Barcelona to study and due to the lack of opportunities in her hometown. “Miranda was a crossroads and was very important for the railway, there were many cinemas, there was an atmosphere from Wednesday to Sunday, theatres and now with luck there is a cinema.” Poses in the Marismas de Catoira, Pontevedra, July 22, 2021.
Nacar has traveled almost 12,000 kilometers of the Spanish outskirts, detecting a pattern that repeats itself: the collapse finds it in Linares (Jaén), branded the “city with the most unemployment in Europe” since the Santana automotive factory closed a decade ago; deindustrialization places it in Andorra (Teruel), a town that rivalled Stockholm in terms of living standards, until the announcement of the closure of the Endesa thermal power plant; and the resistance is found in A Mariña (Lugo), where 30% of the province’s GDP depends on the American company Alcoa, one of the largest aluminum producers in the world, where the workers have agreed to temporarily stop production to prevent the possible factory closure.
The foot of a wind tower in the Montes de Buio. Maria Lucense, Lugo. © Samuel Nacar
An unstoppable process that extends from Cádiz to León, through provinces that were once rich and today see their youth leave. Samuel Nacar gives a voice to these young people, who do not find a future in their home towns, convinced that there they will never be able to do the job for which they were trained, choose to buy a home or even consider having children.
Lucia Alcaine poses in front of a hotel in Andorra (Teruel), which has been closed for years. She will go to Bilbao, because in his city he cannot study what she wants. The thermal power plant that supplied employment to the town and the region closed in 2020. © Samuel Nacar.
THE SCHOLARSHIP THAT HAS MADE THIS PROJECT POSSIBLE
This exhibition is the result of the II Joana Biarnés Scholarship, which has allowed Samuel Nacar to develop the project for nine months, in addition to having the advice of the tutor Jessica Murray, director of Al-liquindoi, a cultural association dedicated to training documentary photographers around the world.
Awarded by an independent jury, the Scholarship was created by Photographic Social Vision with the dual objective of helping the professional development of young authors from all over the country and making visible issues of necessary social reflection.
The Joana Biarnés Scholarship for Young Photojournalists is possible thanks to the Government of Catalonia, the Terrassa City Council, the EFTI School, Foto Ruano Pro and the Joana Biarnés Archive.
ABOUT THE AUTOR
Samuel Nacar (1992) is a documentary photographer. During the last years he has worked covering the migratory routes to Europe. In 2016 he published the book “Pisadas de agua y sal” with the Pagés publishing house. He has worked as a freelance for El País, Deustche Welle, TRT and other media. He worked as a second cameraman on the National Geographic documentary “Ulysses” directed by Samuel Granados. He has been the project manager of “The future is now” for Playground. He won the second Joana Biárnes scholarship and has won the award for best project for the documentary “Taranta” at the Abycine film festival. Among other recognitions for his career, he has won the IPPA awards, a gold medal at the PX3 for his coverage of the Calais eviction in 2016.
- “Cartas a Mariví”. From February 4 to March 19, 2022.
- Sala Fujifilm de Efti. C/ Fuenterrabia 4, Madrid.
- From Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday closed.
