Eli and Carlos, the traveling photographers who portray the emptied Spain

Inspired by the legacy of the ethnologist and photographer Piedad Isla, they land this weekend in SoriaThe two photographers portray in black and white the inhabitants of municipalities with fewer than 500 registered “In these types of photographs, the smile is overvalued,” defends Eli GarmendiaCambiar Barcelona, ​​for Soria or Palencia or some town in Guipúzcoa, the photography studio for a motorhome, and the official portraits of the Buena Vista Social Club for the Rita or Marisa, residents of Fuentestrún. Eli Garmendia and Carlos Pericas have been traveling photographers for four years by their own decision. This weekend they have installed their 82 Hymer, including a laboratory, the awning and the camera in the Plaza de Yanguas, north of Soria. Its 113 inhabitants have the opportunity until Sunday to have an individual portrait printed in black and white. In the era of the selfie, Instagram and smartphones with cameras with 12 megapixel sensors, Eli and Carlos propose zero props -some have been photographed with their dog- paper, black and white printing, an image that includes the character without pose, “as natural as possible.” They launched the “Nomad Portrait” project, a vital adventure that seeks the portrait of the inhabitants of towns with fewer than 500 registered and that has taken them to travel the north and south of the country from spring to fall. The call from Niusdiario.es has caught Eli waiting for the baker in the square with the rest of the neighbors. “In the end we recover the figure of the traveling photographer from 60 or 70 years ago, we try to contribute our experience to the towns through which we pass.” The challenge here, he says, when we have photographed our entire lives – even before we were born – is to look for a naturalness in his work that has nothing to do with smiling. “We don’t ask them to smile, the smile is overrated, just to be themselves and it works. There are those of whom we have taken 4 photos and they are all good.” In Zuheros (Córdoba) Miguel and Cristóbal were photographed, in Alquezar (Huesca) Gaby and Ana. mountain”.20221609 ambulant photographers2niusdiario.esPiedad Isla, the photographer of the mountains of PalenciaThe project has visited the Sorian towns of Tejerizas, Señuelas and Fuentestrún and between May 2021 and April 2022 it has been carried out in fourteen towns in five provinces, portraying a total of 2,021 people, in small towns – with less than 20 – all neighbors and their families have been photographed. “In Fuentestrún we made 165 portraits -there are 40 registered- after the festivals, which shows the link with the town of the people who keep coming back in summer.” Nomad Portrait is very reminiscent of the work of a photographer from Palencia who died in 2009, Piedad Isla who documented life in his region throughout his career touring the mountains of Palencia on his Vespa. “Visiting her museum in Cervera de Pisuerga made us realize that we were doing the same thing she did, which had an archive of 200,000 negatives”. the National Center of Photography. The stop where they would like the negatives to end. Either there, or in some provincial archive.