After our vacation in Croatia, it was back to daily life. But I had taken Wednesday off to make a day trip to Madrid with my daughter, to visit several exhibitions forming part of the huge PhotoEspaña festival which takes place every summer in several Spanish cities, but mainly in Madrid. As I do every year, it is a trip that takes advantage of our high-speed train AVE that covers the 450 km between Alicante and Madrid in less than 2 1/2 hours. This makes it possible to take a morning train to arrive when the various galleries and museums open, and to go back to Alicante on an evening train. My daughter and I had selected 6 exhibitions to see, and planned an itinerary based on the metro lines, the opening hours of the exhibitions, and my wish to have lunch at the Círculo de Bellas Artes which houses one of my favourite restaurants in Madrid.
But I start with four random images from Alicante.
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Yet another beautiful morning on the beach:
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A curious sticker in my neighbourhood, offering to “rate your poops” by accessing the QR code shown. To make it even more mysterious, the phone number below the QR code is a Chicago number. Why someone in Chicago wants to rate Alicante poops, no idea. And I did not find out, since I never scan dodgy QR codes:
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I was having a beer one afternoon in my favourite bar in the centre, Malatesta, when this gentleman walked by. I simply had to ask him to pose for me, and he happily obliged. I later found out that a company in Seville is selling those shirts:
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A photo taken at home, channeling Edward Weston. He photographed peppers, I photographed a Saturn peach:
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On Wednesday morning my daughter and I took the train to Madrid, arriving at the Chamartin station just before 11. I do not like that station very much except for this light panel:
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Our first stop was the Catalan cultural centre where we were going to visit an exhibition by a photographer called Colita:
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The exhibition documented the first Pride march in Barcelona in 1977. During the dictatorship such events were unthinkable, but by 1977, two years after Franco’s death, Spain was changing. The title of the exhibition was “We are not afraid, we are here”:
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Then we moved on to the Círculo de Bellas Artes, a truly magnificent venue. We were going to see three exhibitions there, and have lunch:
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We first went to the second floor to have a look at the Refugio Climatico, a space designed to allow people to spend some time in a pleasant, air conditioned space to escape the searing heat outside. They have been doing it since 2024, and entry is free:
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Each edition of PhotoEspaña has an “invited country”, and this year it is the Netherlands. So the biggest exhibition at the Círculo de Bellas Artes was a group exhibition of Dutch and Spanish photographers valled “Volver a imaginar”:
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I like taking Monica to exhibitions, because she always looks at them very thoroughly and with great interest:
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One of the other exhibitions at the Círculo de Bellas Artes was “Montium Ruin” by French artist Raphaëlle Peria, documenting a landscape in León that had been transformed by the Romans for their gold-mining activities. I had never heard about her or her work, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the day:
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The exhibitions at the Círculo de Bellas Artes close between 2 and 5 p.m., so we had timed our visit to finish at 2 so that we could have lunch in the excellent and beautiful restaurant there:
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After lunch, we went to the Fundación Mapfre, an important art institution in Madrid. We visited two exhibitions there, with the highlight being Richard Avedon’s “In the American West”, presented in its entirety for the first time in Europe:
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I enjoyed seeing the images, but also the test print showing Avedon’s instructions to his assistant and his incredible attention to detail:
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When I go to exhibitions, I am also on the lookout for interesting images of the other visitors. This man with an impressive beard spent perhaps 5 minutes looking at one particular photo:
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Afterwards, it was time to slowly make our way back to Chamartin for the train home, but first we stopped at the large Sol square, found a bar in the shade in one of the shopping streets, and had a drink while looking at the people passing by. These people were very interested in whatever was being displayed on the mobile phone:
We arrived at home around 11 p.m., tired but very pleased with our day. I have a more complete gallery from our day in Madrid here.
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Back in Alicante, I resumed my morning routine, starting with an early beach walk with Mochi. In early morning, people use the beach in different ways. Some excercise:
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Others record themselves in the beautiful light of the rising sun:
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This guy was writing in his notebook, what, I never found out:
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Mochi does not get walked at mid-day right now, it is too hot, but in the evening it is OK. A couple of scenes from my street. A woman with small child study the menu of a restaurant:
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Another restaurent further down the street, with it small terrace full:
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And finally, early morning light can be depicted in many different ways:
