Color photograph, Madrid, 2009.

Ghostown

In 2008 a huge financial crisis hit the world and Spain was not left out. Its real estate market collapsed in a matter of days. In a country that had banked on the housing sector to lead its economy, this meant catastrophe. I photographed around Madrid in various new neighbourhoods, some popular, others more exclusive. Everywhere I found the same scenes of sadness and depression: destroyed landscapes, aborted construction sites, vast, vacant newly-built neighbourhoods, unsold apartments, abandoned roads and infrastructures in places where no public transport, no city life, no shadows were to be found. While working on this series of photographs I found myself questioning the future: what will become of these contemporary ruins ? Where do we want to live and in what kind of city?

72 x 90 cm, giclée print from analog photograph, archival paper, aluminium.