“The images you will see, date For the state of Alicante and they are for the human race,” warns the photojournalist Angel Garcia Katala in the preface Pandemic, images against obliviona book that brings together Some of the best images taken in the first year of the world’s biggest health crisis with Press photographers from the province of AlicanteDue to the outbreak of the coronavirus, he was closed to the general population as the only eyewitness on the streets at the beginning of the state of alarm.
The book was published by Juan Gil-Albert of the Cultural Institute of Alicante and presented this Wednesday at 18:00 at Casa Bardín (c/San Fernando 44, Alicante).
Alex Domínguez, Antonio Amorós, Axel Álvarez, David Revenga, Héctor Fuentes, Juan Carlos Soler, Juani Ruz, Manuel R. Sala, Pilar Cortés, Rafa Arjones, Rafa Molina, Roberto Milan and Tony Sevilla Y Garcia Katala Photojournalists who participated in this issue with their works, some of which were published in the provincial newspapers, and some of them were unpublished. 124 pagesThe images and photo captions were edited by Manuel R. Sala, while the editorial was coordinated by Arjones, this newspaper’s chief photographer.
Snapshot selected for the cover Pandemic, images against oblivion a photograph Juani RuzOn the first day of visits to a nursing home in Alcoy in June 2020, where a girl greets her grandfather from a glass during the de-escalation phase. Chronologically, it is one of 260 images that experience the agony, loneliness and emptiness of the early days, as well as the moments of solidarity, unity or hope. these are reflected towards the bottom of the pages.
“The hard thing was to choosebecause there was so much material and we didn’t want it to be a repetitive or boring book with many similar photos. “We first thought about distributing the images by theme, but found it to be a bit thick, and eventually we decided to sort them chronologically,” he says. few pauses.
Like this, visual tour of the pandemic easily recognizable first picture, predicting what will happen in our country a week before the alarm situation is declared. March 14, 2020: A closed Chinese restaurant in Alicante warned that it was closed to the public with the image of its owner wearing a plastic mask “as a precaution until the virus warning passes”. From there to photos of the first vaccines in January 2021 There are countless snapshots that testify to what happened: Brits who continue to party in Benidorm, shortage of food in supermarkets, empty streets across the province, lack of masks, queues to buy, life on balconies, deliveries alone, unmanned beaches, pcr, quarantine, solidarity, hotel crisis, safety distance, sports, residences and toilets in hospitals“or how little we can do with them at the start of the pandemic news blackout there was,” says Arjones.
With one exception, “a very complete book – shows the coordinator. We didn’t want anything to be missing and we tried to make the result both aesthetic and informative”. García Catalá also refers to this exception in the introduction. “a blur” and “a lack”, which leads to the fact that it is in the book “More applause photos on balconies than saturated intensive care units” and the photographic profession’s right to survive. But he concludes that this is so. an archive of “historic and unimaginable” graphicsperformed with professionalism and in complex conditions. “when no one wants to set foot on the landing of his house”.
The event will include the participation of photojournalists Sala, Arjones and García Catalá, as well as the intervention of the Cultural Assistant. Julia Parra; Gil-Albert’s cultural director, Pilar Tebarand director of the Institute’s Publications department, Tony Cabot.