Years ago Alistair Wood and I used to put on joint photographic exhibitions here in Madrid, now hard work and other responsibilities mean we have been reduced to adding ourselves to each other’s Flickr contact list! Judging from the quality of his photos these days that is probably a good thing! Sharing wall space with photos like the one above, of visitors to Madrid’s new 11M bombings memorial, could be pretty taxing! To see more of Alistair’s photos of the memorial, and trips through Spain and beyond, check out his Flickr pages.
You can read about our exhibitions of yesteryear in Errant in Iberia, and watch a Spanish video blog about the 11M memorials over at notesinspanish.com
Skip
27 Mar 07 at 2:45 pm
Very moving pictures, Does 11M hold the type of emotion that 9/11 does for americans? I’ve read, that when you talk to folks from Madrid, everyone seems to know someone who was affected on that day.
Maybe this is a question for Alstair, do folks mind having their picture takin at this memorial?
regards,
-Skip
Austin, TX
Alistair
27 Mar 07 at 4:11 pm
To reply to Skip – i think that many people from Madrid knew / of someone who was affected on that day – I know people who know people who died – I work in a big English academy – I physically rang any students to check they were alright who hadn’t since come to class after that day, it was a very difficult time – the recent anniversary of 11/M brings it all back – I think it’s good to remember (although it still seems like yesterday) – I think it was a very emotional time for people connected to Madrid as well as it was for people all over the world with 9/11 – I saw the towers go down on tv – I later went into the academy where we had a large group of american students over – many of them were sat on the floor, crying / trying to call home … – it’s difficult to say how people feel about having their photos taken – I imagine some people would not be too happy about it depending on how they’re feeling – when I took the photos I tried to do it discreetly – most people didn’t realise .. but the aim was to try and capture some of the emotion because that’s how I think it needs to be seen – I would certainly remove any photo that was thought to be offensive .. I like the monument because it does capture very well how people felt and it continues to make you feel .. it’s something that will always be with you. Cheers Alistair
Skip
27 Mar 07 at 9:01 pm
Thanks Alistair,
I agree, I like the fact that you were able to capture the emotion and still be discrete. I look forward to one day visiting and paying my respect at the 11M memorial.
Tally Ho,
-Skip