This mini series of portraits is the result of 3 days of a practical workshop with the students of CPI Padín Truiteiro, a high school located in Arcade, an old industrial town in the coastline of Galicia. My job is to coordinate the students and guide them on how to portray their relatives in their old work space as part of a bigger project about the factory of Pontesa.
Pontesa is an old and huge abandoned factory that was very important in the economy of Galicia until it closed in 2002. The students are working as a collective group and their main task is to recover the History of Pontesa, the old factory that has played an essential role in the life of the inhabitants of Arcade. This beautiful project tries to restore the industrial memory of Arcade.
Pontesa is one in many factories that closed down in the last decades in Galicia and the students are very excited about doing a research project on how meaningful the factory was for Arcade. Most of the students have someone in their family that used to work in the factory and they are working closely with them to recover the whole story of one of the most important factories in Spain that currently turned into ruins.
I am just a simple conductor in the story, but I am as excited as they are because the whole story about the factory is absolutely amazing. It has an indescriptible energy as well as a very bizarre shape that makes it quite unique. And that’s all you can get from me now, because the story about Pontesa belongs to the students and they will be the ones to reveal all the secrets behind this extraordinary place when the moment comes.
I simply wanted to document their work and I also wanted to portray each photographer with their chosen model to keep record on the story. This could be a series on photographers shot with their models or could also be a series of portraits on ex-workers of an abandoned factory portrayed with their granddaughters, that surprisingly are the same age as their relatives when they started working in the factory.
We will keep you posted on the project and on the output of the whole research they are working on! You won’t believe the images they are shooting of the place and the people that made of South Galicia one of the most industrialised areas of Spain. They are all doing an incredible job and I see in them a great passion and dedication that will definitely lead them to a great success. Stay tunned!