In March of 2016 Alan Gandy and his wife Elle arrived in Vélez-Blanco for an overnight stay.
Whilst sat outside Bar La Sociedad in the village that evening, they noticed that almost everyone frequenting the bar, and who passed by on the terrace, greeted them.
That evening they turned to each other and, almost in unison, thought and said ‘We could live here!”. The very people who made such a positive impression on them that spring evening are now their neighbours.
In undertaking this project, Alan wanted to document that slice of history held in the faces of the people who live and work in the village. Unlike the old sepia photographs buried in attics that have been, or are yet to be, rediscovered, the images of the digital age fade into the electronic ether in no time at all. Nothing is permanent, least of all people. We are all but a collection of atoms here for a brief instant, yet we are not really gone until the last remaining image of us is no more…
If the image of El Brujo in Cueva de los Letreros (a character in a nearby cave painting adopted by the community as its symbol) is a representation of a real person, he lives on and he will do so long after the rest of the people in Velèz-Blanco are forgotten.With this in mind, the original files are being made available to the Ayuntamiento of Vélez-Blanco in order that they can be archived for future generations as a documentary record of 2017.
About Alan Gandy
Alan Gandy is a British photographer, artist and former lecturer now based in Almeria, Spain. Since completing a degree in fine art photography Alan has had his work both published and exhibited around Europe. [Official Website]
