Spain
09th October 2010
Much of this year has found me abroad, up a mountain in Spain working on my own personal project of rural life inland. My aim is not to try and make it look like life has not changed in 100 years, but trying to show its old ways, mixed with the new. Where I have been there are no fast food restaurants, no take-aways, nothing but traditional Spanish food. However, all villages have high speed wifi, and even vast areas of the sparsely populated mountains receive satellite internet. In my local village a group of young enterprising Spaniards have formed a cooperative and installed their own antenna on a mountain top. As a result, though I have been living without mains electricity or water, I now have wifi internet for only 3€ a month. Along side this many old customs still adhere and it is this mix I am attempting to capture, as well as the rugged wild beauty of the open and semi-savage landscape. I have not updated my news due to this for a long time, and I have hardly updated my galleries. I think I am becoming more and more Spanish in my attitude. Mañana, mañana... here is the cabin where I have been living - my energy needs are supplied by one solar panel, two batteries and a small petrol generator. This charges my laptop and allows me to have a quick shower, and run some occasional low energy lights, and also, a small CD player. I do have a hairdryer, but must run the generator if I want to use it. As a result, for the first time in my life, I am learning to "let it go". Who cares anyway? On a brief visit to America I was really shocked, as never before, by the conspicuous waste and consumption.
