“This body of work is an attempt to stay in the present time and space out with demanding social networks and the influence of the lives of others. It explores the necessity of being left alone and being in contact with Nature to establish a tangible dialogue with the inner self for a better understanding of its place in this world.
“On my personal quest for the presence, I would pursue the great liberation from other people’s lives through the act of walking, disconnected from social media. Exploring in this way, my sense of out of the virtual world.
“I started a 35 day journey (500 miles) through the Spanish summer fields in 2016. Disconnected from social networks, I took the pilgrim route of Camino de Santiago (from Madrid to Muxía, Galicia), searching for my very own identity in a space that was familiar to me. Not being exposed to social media and its virtual essence, gave my mind the space to embrace reality in its purest form. My feet would recognise the soil and its fields of cereals and sunflowers; my blood would understand the outrageous heat of summer in the Spanish flatland and my spoken tongue would speak for me and to me, fluently, in a dialogue easy to understand. I felt free and safe, in a space and time that only I would have access to.
“I took records of my very own presence and time, making a visual diary composed of around 100 cyanotypes. The shadows of found objects and other aspects of this journey were printed on the go; on the paper I was carrying in my backpack loaded with photosensitive emulsions. I would develop the images with the sun and water sources of each day, making each print unique. Paying attention to the landscape, allowed me to be physically in touch with my reality. Absorbing a set of tastes, colours and scents only present in the real world at that very precise moment. Step by step, I would leave the lives of others behind and start to focus only on what I could see and touch: recognising again my place in this world.” – Sara Alonso
