In 1972, a quiet scene unfolds at the Plaza de España in Alcoy, captured from the doorway of the City Hall. The casual moment—cars waiting at a light, people chatting—offers a stark contrast to the present view from the same spot. Vehicles have evolved, the street has transformed into a larger parking area, fashion has shifted, traffic signals glow differently, and neon signs illuminate the buildings under the gaze of a historic cross on the Santa María church facade. On any ordinary day in 1972, Alcoy and its community looked and felt very different from today.
That same year, another image by Perfecto Arjones likely taken on the same day shows two Papeleras Reunidas workers leaving the l’Alqueria d’Asnar factory, each carrying a lunchbox. The photograph reveals how eating at work was a norm decades ago. Inside the frame sits a Seat 850, a status symbol of its era, possibly owned by a manager. The narration behind the image goes beyond the obvious, turning a simple moment into a documented memory that speaks to a broader historical record.
One of the strongest values of the exhibition Huelas de un tiempo. D’un temps i d’un país is its ability to collect diverse scenes from Alcoy and the Alicante province, all captured by Arjones. The show runs from this Friday through March 26, 2023, at the Llotja de Sant Jordi. The twenty-year-old former photojournalist for INFORMACIÓN, who passed away in 2021, left thousands of snapshots that speak for themselves, preserving both ordinary moments and more solemn themes, and highlighting the tensions of a society in flux. The collection’s graphic narrative traces the province’s transition to democracy.
Local flavor remains strong with scenes from the Moors and Christians Festival, particularly images from 1968 and 1969. In a recent year, a photograph by Alcoy’s own José Crespo Colomer captured a team from the festival, later used as the cover for a popular album. At the exhibition’s opening, the emotional moment when the Arjones and Crespo Colomer families united after 53 years was remembered, a reminder of how a single image can bind generations.
Rafael Arjones, the photographer’s son and now the graphic manager of information publications, expressed pride in the project. He noted that digitizing the entire archive helps preserve a public memory that matters to the province’s history. The mayor of Alcoy described the exhibition as a showcase of images never before seen, a nuanced historical panorama crafted by a graphic historian of Alicante’s province.
The broader view of the exhibition emphasizes the work of photojournalists as a form of archival memory. The organizing bodies include a regional government office focused on cultural memory, a foundation dedicated to historical documentary work, the Alcoy City Council, and a university art chair. Each contributor recognizes that these photographs are not just pictures but records of the people and moments that shaped a community over decades. They serve as a visual archive that invites reflection on how everyday life, regional identity, and democratic transitions evolved side by side through time.