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Indiegogo campaign is live!
Participate in the creation of my forthcoming photobook ‘Once Upon a Time in Almeria: The Legacy of Hollywood in Spain.’ With your help the book will be published in Fall 2017 by Daylight Books! Visit my Indiegogo project page to see an introductory video and get more information about how you can help. Please consider purchasing an advance signed copy of the book — currently available only through the crowdfunding site. Prints from from the series are also available. The reality of photobook publishing these days is that photographers are expected to raise some portion of the funds for book […]
Read More65 cinema experts choose the best movies filmed in Almería
This summer “La Voz de Almería” conducted a survey to pick the best films shot in the area since 1961. Hundreds of films have been made in the region over the past half century and 65 local cinema experts such as film experts, actors, directors, historians, writers were asked to select their top ten best movies filmed in Almería. “Lawrence de Arabia”, “Indiana Jones and the last crusade” and “The Good, the Ugly and the Bad” occupied the top three positions of the list and were considered among the best ever made. “Vivir es fácil” was the first Spanish movie appearing […]
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Press Coverage: Opening of “Érase una vez en Almería” in Tabernas
My exhibit “Érase una vez en Almería: Decorados, Restos y Paisajes de Cine” (“Once Upon a Time in Almería”) opened last week in Almería, Spain, with a reception and artist talk. The show includes 18 framed prints 24″ x 36″, all images of film sets and locations around the province of Almería, which was the site of hundreds of movie productions throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It was an emotional experience for me to have these photographs exhibited in Almería. The town of Tabernas, where the exhibit was located, is host to three remaining western movie towns and has been […]
Read MorePress coverage about the exhibition “Once Upon a Time in Almería”
My exhibition “Érase una vez en Almería: Decorados, Restos y Paisajes de Cine” (“Once Upon a Time in Almería”) was inaugurated this last weekend in Almería, Spain. The exhibition included 18 framed prints 24″ x 36″, all images of film sets and locations around the province of Almeria, which was the site of hundreds of movie productions primarily in the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition showed sets built to recreate shootings, constructions where “good, bad and ugly folks” found a shelter and landscapes through where stagecoaches were heading to the unknown. “Mark Parascandola presents his vision of what is left […]
Read MoreExposición “Érase una vez en Almería: decorados, restos y paisajes del cine” en el Salón Polivalente de Tabernas en Almería
“Érase una vez en Almería: decorados, restos y paisajes del cine” Salón Polivalente de Tabernas. Dias 9, 10 y 11 de octubre de 2015 Diputación de Almería. Instituto de Estudios Almerienses Horario: 11.00 h.-13.00 h y 17.00 h – 20.00 h En los años 60 numerosos directores de cine europeo y americano descubrieron Almería, atraídos por su luz, el peculiar paisaje desértico, y una barata mano de obra. Decenas de películas como Cleopatra, Lawrence de Arabia, Patton, así como varios spaguetti westerns de Sergio Leone, con Clint Eastwood como protagonista, fueron grabados allí. Cuatro años más tarde, los decorados de […]
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Eight Lives of El Condor 1
The camera is usually shooting out from the hillside, looking down over the installation. The sun sets behind the hillside, so the few glimpses in that direction are somewhat obscured by the glare of sunlight. One of the most intriguing locations in Almeria is the site of an elaborate fortress originally constructed in 1969 for the film El Condor. Adobe houses, horse stables, an elevated water tank, and a luxurious two story stone house surrounded a central plaza the size of a soccer field. The entire complex was circled by 30 foot walls with a network of watchtowers and stairways. […]
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Installation at Miami Dade Main Library
‘Once Upon a Time in Almeria’ opens Friday April 26 at the Miami Dade Main Library building in downtown Miami. Installation is almost complete and the work looks great in the space. Several large scale prints line the wall in the main lobby inviting visitors up the large central stairway to see the rest of …
Read MoreOptions 2013 at Arlington Arts Center
WPA Options 2013 on exhibit April 10 – June 9, opening reception April 13 6-9pm
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MDPLS “Art of Storytelling” Exhibit Opening: Once Upon a Time in Almeria
Once Upon a Time in Almeria Mark Parascandola April 26 – June 3 Miami Dade Public Library Main Library – 2nd floor exhibition space 101 W. Flagler Street Miami Florida 33130 305-375-2665 During the 1960s and 1970s, the region of Almeria in Spain, was host to dozens of filmmakers who constructed elaborate movie sets, invoking locations from the American Southwest to Bedouin Arabia. Films shot here include Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood, of which some were inspired by both real-life events and fictional plays by Spanish poet/author Federico Garcia Lorca. Film directors […]
Read MoreOnce Upon a Time in Almería
The Movie Capitol of the World It was 50 years ago that David Lean’s film Lawrence of Arabia had its premier. Lean had intended to shoot the entire film in Jordan, on the same terrain where Lawrence had waged his campaign. But the difficulties of working 200 miles into the desert for months at a time put the production behind schedule and way over budget. The work took a psychological toll as well, and Producer Sam Spiegel feared that Lean had become obsessed with the desert. So Spiegel ordered the entire production to be moved to Spain. Lean was furious. […]
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