Coverage of “Once Upon a Time in Almería” in the Daily Mail

This week the Daily Mail published a feature article on my photo project documenting the legacy of Hollywood and international filmmaking in Almeria, Spain.

Here is one excerpt from the interview published in the article:
‘The Western towns built by Sergio Leone and others were not meant to be accurate representations of the American West. Instead, they were constructed to meet filmmakers’ vision of what the American West was like.
‘The Spaghetti Western has been described as a myth of a myth, because it is one step further removed from the myth of the original Hollywood Westerns.
‘However, this myth of a myth has come to shape our own modern ideas about the historical West.
‘Additionally, the films created a fictional image of Spain. Bringing the film industry to Spain during this period was part of dictator Francisco Franco’s effort to change the image of Spain to the rest of the world, to promote tourism and show Spain as a country not only with beautiful landscapes, a grand history, and colourful traditions, but also as a modern country that could compete with the rest of Europe.
‘However, the version of Spain displayed to tourists and movie audiences was a fiction, free of the very physical and harsh realities of the time.’

My forthcoming photobook “Once Upon a Time in Almeria: The Legacy of Hollywood in Spain” with images of these Western “ghost towns” will be published by Daylight Books in the fall 2017 and have recently launched a campaign in Indiegogo to hightlight Spain´s movie heritage and the beauty of these old movie sets.

Please visit my Indiegogo campaign and support the project by becoming a backer and sharing it with others!

Read the article.

Read the Project Notes and Artist Statement.