Mogarraz
Stories
Mogarraz
A story about a small Spanish village, a photographer and a painter
Portraits on the walls
Mogarraz is a municipality located in the province of Salamanca, Castile and León, Spain.
On our way to Béjar we saw in the village of Mogarraz, while driving by, painted portraits hanging on several houses. It caught our attention and we decided to park the camper and explore the village.
To our surprise, we saw that portraits were placed on almost all houses. Portraits of the people in the village, of the people who live or have lived in the houses.
The photographer and the painter
It’s a special story. The portraits are based on a series of 388 photographs taken by Alejandro Martin in 1967. He took the photos to help his villagers with ID cards. Due to the poor economic conditions, many people wanted to emigrate and needed an ID card.
Fifty years later, a local artist began painting the photographs on large panels. The name of the painter is Florencio Maillo. The paintings are now hanging on the houses of the village, making the village an “outdoor art gallery”.
It was a big surprise for us. A wonderful exhibition. We took a lot of pictures. In fact, we couldn’t stop. The circle is complete now. From photo to painting and now from painting to photo again.
Our photo series
As mentioned above , we have taken many photos that morning. We have made a small selection of our collection for this post. If you want to see the whole series please visit our photo site on SmugMug (click).
Comments are closed.
