Assignment Five: People and Places on Assignment.

Assignment Five: People and place on assignment.

I laid out my plan for this assignment in my last entry.  I reproduce it below.

The notional client is a Euro sceptic magazine that is looking to see the worst of the Euro crisis through its effect on a small corner of Spain.

The client is looking for strong anti European pictures to back up a view that the Euro is failing and that the weaker currencies are floundering.

I am being sent to the small town of La Zenia in the province of Horihuela to see how the Euro is affecting the area. 

Horihuela is an agricultural area once famous for its oranges, lemons, almonds and market garden produce.  Agricultural production has moved inland as holiday homes and golf courses have developed along the coastal strip.  

This worked well for all until the property collapse following the banking crisis.  Confidence was lost and the northern Europeans, who had fuelled this bonanza, up and left, leaving mortgage debts and empty unsold properties.

How successful has the move inland been for agriculture and how has the coastal strip coped with the loss of confidence in the Euro?

Planned pictures.

Abandoned orangeries and their newer inland replacements.

Half built villas and developments without signs of continuing progress.

Closed shops.

Empty bars.

Signs of civil unrest.

Signs of emerging poverty.

Se vende (For sale) signs, especially old ones.

The effect on the black market in pirated DVDs, watches and ‘branded’ goods.

This should give scope for some powerful pictures.

Because of flight weight restrictions I will be using the Canon G1-X.   As long as I don’t look for ultra wide or long shots this should not prove to be a handicap and will give me the opportunity to take some ‘from the hip’ covert shots.

I have been visiting La Zenia regularly for about twenty years and know the area pretty well.  When I first went there it was a quiet seaside town frequented, in the main, by the Spanish.  It is now just part of the east of Spain’s coastal development strip that runs in land for up to five miles.  

All was going well with this development until the property crash, which hit Spain particularly badly.  Development stopped and many half finished projects were abandoned.  

I wanted to find abandoned building sites in both the private and municipal sectors, and people in straightened circumstances.  I realised I may not be made welcome and was aware of my position.

The pictures are not produced in chronological order but are grouped in subject order.  

Public Buildings.

The first is the new airport at Corvera near the City of Murcia.  This was finished in October 2012 after five years construction.  It was built to carry passengers to the planned Paramount Theme Park that was due to open in 2015.  The theme park is on hold and the airport is now mothballed.  Security was high and I had to take these pictures by poking my lens through the security fence.  I would liked to have included a picture of one of the security men but when men with guns say no I put away the camera.

The picture is of the main vehicle entrance to the airport.  As can be seen the site is all ready to run, right down to the street signs and direction boards.  The only things missing are passengers, vehicles and planes.   Here I am trying to convey the feeling of emptiness.  there is absolutely no life in this obviously finished project.

The next abandoned site is the joint Police Station/Fire Station.  The builder, having been paid in full ran out of money and ceased trading, leaving the site as you see it now.  The local council has no money to finish it and is waiting for local business to find the money to finish it with a PPI arrangement.  The total lack of building materials and workmen show quite clearly that this project is going nowhere.  Could go on for years.  There was no way of getting into the site so I took the picture over the security fence.   The sagging scaffolding poles and the dipping angle of the cranes jib give this picture a feeling of despair.  I like the mixture of squares and triangles.

Business Buildings.

I had real problems with this one as a shop or restaurant that is closed and abandoned looks very much like a building that has just been locked up at the end of the days business.  I therefore looked for sites that were very obviously not going to open again or if in construction would not be finished..  

The first was of was some sort of cement works.  I took a lot of pictures here, both including the closed gates and excluding them.  I think the picture has the look I was after.  It is clearly a place where work has ceased and where nature is reclaiming the space.  The fact that it is a cement works that has been abandoned hints at trouble in the building industry in general.  In various versions of this shot I placed this edifice first one side, then the other.  I had it small in a larger scene and cropped in much tighter so that it filled the frame.  I think this central placing works well and I have let the trees on the left be balanced by the open space to the right.  The viewer’s eye is drawn to the main object.

Peter commented that the above was similar to the work done by the Bechers.  I have reworked this as a monochrome to see how this would look.  When I first viewed the above version I wanted to keep the contrast of the blue sky but by playing with the colour sliders I have produced a picture that is much grimmer than my original.

  

This picture is about general industrial decay.  The site was obviously abandoned some time ago and there is absolutely no sign of regeneration.  The red no entry sign is an added symbol of final closure.  Without the red sign this would not be as strong.  The eye keeps returning to the sign and then roams out to the rest of the picture.  There are various viewing lines in both the fencing and the overhead wires that lead the eye around but always the eye returns to the red sign.  

The last of these is a shopping mall that again died as a result of the Euro crisis.  The cost of completing this building was going to go beyond any possible revenue and is not going to be finished.  This was one of the first buildings to be affected and has been in this state for about three years.  I took the shot at this low angle on purpose so as to rid it of any muddled background and place it against the sky. This emphasise its shape  and highlights its air of isolation.  The trees and shrubs in front give a nice contrast to the bare concrete frame.

Private Buildings.

As with the above pictures I had problems finding buildings that were not just abandoned but looked abandoned.  There were many that were never going to see their owners again but only appeared to be poorly cared for.  The two I include fill the bill nicely.

The first is a housing project that was finished a year ago and didn’t sell.  It is now in a very sorry state with smashed windows, torn out units, and no hope.  These were high quality houses that were caught up in the property collapse.  This is another occasion where I took a lot of pictures during a number of visits.  I worked from all round the site and from both inside and outside the buildings.  In the end I went with this shot.  If I’d labelled it, “Eastern War Zone”, it would be believable.  For me it sums up the state of the area.

The second is a house that sits on a headland overlooking the Mediterranean.  Here the cost of the build overtook the dropping value of the property and project has been mothballed. This building is in a wonderful location looking out towards La Manga and beyond to the open sea.  There was no access to this site so I was restricted as to where I could take my pictures.   I wanted to give the impression of the building having not just empty windows but also empty eyes.
PeterDavis has made the comment that a shot from inside may have worked better.  I did investigate this possibility but the construction of the properties made for very poor sight lines and the damaged interiors could have been from any demolition site.  

People.

The first features one of the many itinerant sellers of fake designer goods.  Nothing strange in seeing these guys.  Look behind him however and the problem of the tourist industry in general can be seen.  This is a quality restaurant in a popular area at lunch time.  Where are the patrons?  The sun is out, the food is good and the beer was cold.  I have never known it to be this quiet.  The other point of note is the seller.  Normally these guys are camera shy to the point of paranoia.  They either turn and run or get aggressive when a camera is pointed at them.  This guy was willing to posed for €1 and went off happy.  There is a note of almost desperation in his eyes.  I was pleased with the balance of this shot with the angle of his head matching the angle of the trees to the right of him and the tray of sunglasses lining up with the balcony of the restaurant. 
Here Peter has criticised the fact that I am obviously the object of this man's attention.  That was the point.  I was the only patron at this restaurant and he was trying to sell to me.  One cannot always be the flaneur passing though life unseen. 

Unemployment is a real and growing problem in all of Spain and La Zenia is no different.  The lady featured here is holding up a placard that asks if anyone will employ her for house work.  She is clearly desperate and is not averse to accepting the odd coin dropping into her purse.  I took the picture from a high position to make her look as small as I could.  I have lightened her face slightly to give it some detail.

Prostitution is a flourishing industry.  It is carried up in the orange groves with the girls selling their charms at small junctions and round-a-bouts.  This one let me know in plain language that she did not want her picture taken.  I had seen the guy on the bike taking to other girls and reckon he was some sort of minder.  Again a balance of person against empty space.
Here the criticism is that it was obviously a snatched shot and that I could have approached this woman, offered her money and then taken the shot.  My object was to obtain her attention and get a reaction.  Neither her, nor my, Spanish would have been up to any such exchange.

Agriculture.  

Once again there was the problem of making an abandoned lemon grove look the part.  Fruit fallen to the ground looks just that.  Dying trees regressing to scrub look like scrub.  Rather that use one of my pictures of decay I will use one of hope.  Inland there are signs of hope with new plantations of citrus, olive and almond trees.  This is a picture of a new orange plantation near Rebate.

Tourism.

Tourism still flourishes in the area but only at the upper end of the market.  The dancers featured here were performing at a top end restaurant well inland from the coastal strip.  I took this against the light but with fill-in flash to obtain contrasting textures and tones.  The red of the dresses stand out well against the mainly green background.  By taking from behind the stage I have included the enthusiastic audience.  I took lots of pictures trying to get this feeling of movement and passion. 
I wanted to finish on a happier note hinting at a brighter future and I think this shot does just that.

How did I succeed?

This is my original list.

Planned pictures.

Abandoned orangeries and their newer inland replacements.

  The new planting picture works OK but a picture of an abandoned orange grove just      looks like scrub land.

Half built villas and developments without signs of continuing progress.

   Plenty of evidence and pictures tell the story.

Closed shops.

Empty bars.

   With both of the above an abandoned shop could be taken for a shop just closed till the start of the season.  Took lots of shots but none of them looked convincing on return to UK.

Signs of civil unrest.

   There simply was none.  No demonstration or outrageous political graffiti.

Signs of emerging poverty.

   Plenty, from the old lady to the unfinished buildings.

Se vende (For sale) signs, especially old ones.

   I was hoping for the classic shot of rows of For Sale signs lining a street but the Spanish display their Se Vende signs in their windows.  Plenty of them but not as a block or row.

The effect on the black market in pirated DVDs, watches and ‘branded’ goods.

    I took a number of pictures featuring these sellers, usually shooting blind from the hip but the picture I have used is the best.

Just to finish a gratuitous shot over the Pyrenees on the way home by way of Easy Jet.