Rural Scenes: Collection of finalist photographs at the 69th “Ciutat de Xàtiva” Photography Exhibition 2024.
Rural Spain exists and always has a lot to tell, especially at the present time. Both to claim its way of life and to remember that rural landscapes shelter a large part of our culture and our roots… Javier Rico.
An emotional tribute to a world in danger of extinction, the one we come from, but which is fading from our memory and reality. That is why it is necessary to know it, feel it, relive it. It is the chronicle of an intimate and emotional destruction: the devastation of rural culture and the transformation of our towns into small islands of solitude where time seems embalmed in a display case inhabited by memory, in which echoes and signs of yesterday still reverberate. Alejandro López Andrada.Even today we can find rural scenes: “As the sun sets, the flock of sheep quickens its pace to the sound of cowbells on its way to the lambing pen. The shepherd opens the gate of the sheepfold, and before his watchful eye, the flock enters the stable, while he counts them to check that none have gotten lost along the way. In the light of the lamp and after checking that everything is in order, he locks the door, putting an end to the day. Tomorrow will be another day.
Photograph by Jesús Calabuig, shepherd from Barxeta: 3rd prize in the 1st SOM RURALS photography competition.
The shepherd from Barxeta, Jesús Calabuig, poses satisfied with his flock after the last rains, which at the end of summer, have made the fields green again. In the background, the Buixcarró and the town’s bell tower are witness to a rural scene that is becoming less and less common.
