I MADE THIS…PICTURE - 001
When: September 18, 2019
Where: Lore de Estepa, Province of Seville, Andalucía, Spain
How: Samsung S7 mobile phone
Why: I’ve selected this photo as it is a favourite because of the memories it evokes: of the freedom of being on the road, of the pleasures of new discoveries, of being in a place that feels a bit wild. I’m happy with the framing – I liked the twin solitudes of the bus and the tree in an otherwise barren lot in the midst of what feels like a pretty isolated and rather unforgiving place. My eye was drawn to the harsh mountainside facing the vast hazy expanse of the plain, with the imposition of the man-made environment in which I’m standing. There is a slight absurdity to the fact that the only shade available in this hot place now lies on the opposite side of the tree from where the coach is parked. (And why is there an empty coach parked at the far edge of a vacant lot?) The restaurant sign symbolizes the allure of the open road. It all hearkens to the earliest images of the New Topographic style which drew attention to the affects of human intervention on the natural wilds of the American west.
Four years ago I was much less obsessed with photography than I am today (I had not yet joined the Fuji cult!), so while my Nikon DSLR was close at hand in the back of the car I chose to just grab this shot with my trusty Samsung S7. Fortunately my phone had a half decent camera and I’m half decent at composition so despite the fact that the image quality is not excellent the picture continues to personally speak to me.
Backstory: In the autumn of 2019 we travelled to Andalucía in the south of Spain. Our base was Seville, but as soon as we arrived from Canada we hopped in a rental car and began a four night mini-road trip. We travelled a loop from Seville to Cordoba, Grenada, and back to Seville. In doing research for our vacation we had been reminded of Spain’s iconic Osborne bulls and we had investigated whether we might be able to see one in the wild. Sure enough, there is one located along the highway outside the tiny pueblo of Lore de Estepa. Hence this became a stop on our return drive to Seville.
The landscape of Andalucía away from the coasts and the river valleys is magical – harsh, hot and ruggedly beautiful. The ground is gravel which changes colour every couple of kilometres, and from it spring millions of olive trees. The air is infused with their perfume much in the way that the air is infused with the scent of grapes in a wine region. As the road rises up and bends around this particular rocky mountain there stands the Osborne bull, gazing eastward across the plain.
At the highway exit there is a gas station, a love motel, and a road house called El Hacho II. (El Hacho I is on the other side of town serving the eastbound lanes of the highway). Being lunch hour we grabbed a couple of take away bocadillos in the restaurant and a souvenir bottle of the local olive oil. Unbeknownst to us the olive oil produced in Estepa is renowned and we found ourselves wishing we had bought more.
Across the overpass bridge a small gravel track was accessed off the road into town. Flanking the highway we followed it back until we suddenly came upon the backside of the billboard bull. We were alone there save for an empty car (which turned out to belong to some overly energetic athlete running up and down the side of the hill) and the passing transport trucks. We savoured the isolation, the dry heat, the crunch of the gravel underfoot. We took a couple of teenage boy photos and headed back on our way.
This sight was not on any tourist itineraries and we probably spent only about a half hour here. And yet it remains one of the most memorable of this vacation. The take home message for us has been to allow yourself to stop on a moment’s notice and savour what little pleasures you may find!
Thanks very much for reading! Let me know if you enjoy this type of “feature” and/or what I could do to improve them.
Till next time,
Bruce
PS - I mentioned in my introductory piece last week that I planned to do periodic “I Made This Picture” posts via SubStack’s Notes sub-platform. I’ve decided for now to stick with the main platform so more of you will receive them – I feel like Notes is still mostly used by dedicated SubStack participants.
Another reason for sticking to the main platform is that it better suits my schedule; until I get more used to publishing regularly I don’t want to overburden myself with more than one piece per week.
Also, I’ve decided to broaden this periodic feature to include whatever I feel like talking about as long as it’s something I’ve made. So it will be “I Made This…XXX” (Although to be honest I think it will remain primarily about photographs)
B.
As always, it's the magician, not the wand :D
Great start with your series. Love the minimalism of the headline photo. There's an off-the-beaten-track loneliness you've captured, and the phone gives it an almost dated, technicolor effect. Like something out of a tourist guide in the 1960s or 70s. Keep the series coming...!