The Pandemic Photo Book: Images Against Oblivion from Alicante’s Press Photographers

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“The images you will see date for the state of Alicante and they are for the human race,” states a leading photojournalist in the introduction to Pandemic, a collection of powerful photographs captured during the first year of the world’s most significant health crisis. The book gathers work from Alicante province’s press photographers, who were largely confined to the streets as witnesses when the lockdown began and public access was severely limited.

The volume was issued by the Juan Gil-Albert cultural institute in Alicante and was unveiled in a public event held at Casa Bardín. The venue was located at San Fernando 44 in Alicante, drawing attention to a project that chronicles the early days of the pandemic through the eyes of regional journalists.

The project features 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, along with the contribution of Angel Garcia Catalá. Their photographs, some previously published in provincial outlets and others unpublished, form a 124-page volume. Editorial tasks and photo captions were refined by Manuel R. Sala, under the coordination of Arjones, who serves as chief photographer for the newspaper involved.

One image was selected for the cover: a snapshot from the early nursing-home visits in Alcoy during June 2020, where a girl greets her grandfather through a glass during the de-escalation phase. Chronologically, the book assembles 260 photographs that reveal the pain, isolation, and emptiness of those days, while also highlighting moments of solidarity, unity, and hopeful resilience that appear toward the bottom of many pages.

“The challenge lay in choosing what to include,” acknowledges one contributor. “There was so much material, and the aim was to avoid a repetitive or dull collection with similarly styled pictures. At first, there was talk of organizing by theme, but the approach felt too heavy. Ultimately, the team decided to present the images chronologically.” The goal was to offer a visual journey that felt accessible and instructive, without sacrificing aesthetic impact.

The sequence opens with a stark forecast of what was to come in the country, a week before the nationwide alarm was officially declared. March 14, 2020 marked the closure of a Chinese restaurant in Alicante, its owner shown wearing a plastic mask as a precaution cast against the unknown virus. From that point forward, the book traces the arc from the earliest vaccines in January 2021 to a wide array of scenes: bustling crowds in Benidorm contrasted with empty streets, shortages in supermarkets, mask shortages, queues at stores, people isolated on balconies, and the solitary routine of deliveries and hospital care. It also captures the social fabric during confinement, including sports, residences, and the tension of hospital spaces, alongside the hopeful and the hopeful-less moments that framed daily life during the crisis’s onset. The editors note that the project sought to document not only the harsh realities but also the enduring human spirit amid a news blackout that affected the profession itself.

With one notable exception, the project is described as a comprehensive archive that pairs a strong visual narrative with informative context. The editor and photographers emphasize that nothing essential was left out and that the result aims to be both aesthetically compelling and informative. The introduction notes a particular moment of collective memory—the convergence of images that reflect a public health crisis and the profession’s obligation to document it with integrity, even when access to daily life was severely restricted.

The launch event included panels featuring Sala, Arjones, and Garcia Catalá, alongside the cultural assistant and the institute’s leadership. The discussion highlighted the broad scope of the project and its role in preserving a digital and print record of those unprecedented times. The publication appears as a testament to professional photography conducted under challenging conditions, and to the resilience of the photojournalistic community that continued to document reality when many eyes were turned away.

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