“tourist one million” is a thoughtful examination of Tabarca, a small island off the coast of Alicante, seen through the lens of tourism, persistence, and portraiture. The project follows a photographer from Alicante, Carlos Aguilera, who spent two months on the island, arriving at the pier day after day to observe the ebb and flow of visitors. His routine was not mere documentation; it was a study in perseverance, turning a simple act of waiting into a sustained creative inquiry that would later become a photo book.
During this period, Aguilera formed a quiet collaboration with a local figure known to many as the island’s unofficial chronicler of people and moments. The man, José Espinosa, had earned a nickname from decades of daily photographic work on Tabarca. He photographed nearly every tourist who stepped ashore for years, producing thousands of images each day and earning a reputation for his unflinching commitment to the task. When Espinosa recently stepped back from public work to return to life on the mainland, the project thoughtfully picked up the thread, inviting Aguilera to continue the village’s visual narrative in a new light. The idea was simple: carry the baton, keep the record alive, and show how the island’s character evolves as new visitors arrive.
Aguilera began assembling his body of work in 2020, amassing thousands of photographs. A portion of this archive was curated into a photo book that presents a distinct view of Tabarca—one that moves beyond the familiar stamps and postcard panoramas. The book invites viewers to look at side faces and ordinary objects that often go unnoticed. In every frame, the harbor wall forms a constant backdrop, creating a shared stage on which island life unfolds. The photographer explains that, initially, there were more open horizons where sea and sky dominated the frame, but over time the walls of the island and the central axis of the pier began to steer the narrative, guiding attention to the human and mundane details that tell the true story of Tabarca.
Launched through an artist residency and cultural program, the project then found support from regional cultural and tourism organizations. The latest publication emerged with the help of local partners who helped produce a run of copies while staying faithful to the archive’s spirit and the island’s living memory. The edition blends about 40 carefully selected photographs with three short texts, echoing the collaborative energy that has driven the work from its inception. A series of flyers—distributed to visitors—provides additional context and connects the images to the island’s broader story. The intention is to offer a layered experience: visual impressions backed by concise narration that respects the pace of island life and the rhythms of its seasonal influx.
Design for the publication was crafted by a Valencia-based studio, bringing together the work of the creative minds behind Handshake, Rubén Montesinos, and Jaime Sebastián. Their collaboration helps translate the photographic project into a tangible artifact that can be shared with audiences beyond Tabarca, inviting both locals and travelers to reconsider what they see when they visit a familiar place. The resulting book embodies a dialogue between memory and reality, a record that captures not only the island’s beauty but its ordinary, enduring scenes—the dock, the walls, the faces that appear in passing—and reframes them as a coherent narrative about place, time, and perception.