Oral tradition tells that the Spanish local desert areas were once

covered with dense forests through which squirrels could cross the

country from one end to the other.



 

That image of a desert

parched and cracked

of salt water,

that generates visions

of lagoons in the sun

and whirlwinds of dust

dancing on its shores.




There are no longer any forests,

nor any testimonies left ...



and the villages turn into ruins,

and ruins into rocks,

and the rocks into dust,

which nourishes

new life.


 

Forest, water, rocks.

EXHIBITIONS

  • UPCOMING - Festival OFF Arles -projection-, 2026 (Arles, FR)

  • UPCOMING - SPAIN arts & science lab in BELGIUM, 2026 (Brussels, BE)

  • Art Photo Barcelona, 2026 (Barcelona, ES)

  • Real Sociedad Fotográfica, 2026 (Madrid, ES)

  • ArtsLibris ARCOmadrid / Real Sociedad Fotográfica, 2026 (Madrid, ES)

  • PHoto ESPAÑA / Greenpeace, 2025 (Madrid, ES)

  • FORMAT23 Open Call Shortlisted, 2023 (Derby, UK)

  • Festival OFF Bratislava, 2022 (Bratislava, SK)

  • Climate Conscious Creativity, 2022 (Without Form space -online-, UK)

  • Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels, International conference on the Global Green New Deal, 2022 (Brussels, BE)

  • LCC / University of the Arts London, 2021 (London, UK)

MENTIONS

  • 2026 | XIX Premio de Fotografía Fundación ENAIRE - Finalist (ES)

  • 2026 | Prix Révélation SAIF x La Kabine - Finalist (FR)

  • 2026 | Ventanilla Abierta Grant, Spain Arts & Culture (BE/ES)

  • 2026 | Athens Photo Festival 2026 -Shortlisted- (Athens, GR)

  • 2023 | FORMAT23 -Shortlisted- (Derby, UK)

BOOK

  • Montes Negros’ Eden, Cuadernos Reales, Real Sociedad Fotográfica, 2026

  • Montes Negros’ Eden, self-published, 2021

PRESS

  • 2026 Clavoardiendo Magazine (ES)

  • 2022 Montes Negros’ Eden, Salvaje Magazine N° 12 (ES)

  • 2022 Montes Negros’ Eden, Photograd Zine (UK)

  • 2021 Montes Negros’ Eden Featured, Click Magazine N° 79 (IT)

COLLECTIONS

  • Real Sociedad Fotográfica (Madrid, ES)

  • University of the Arts London Collection, London (UK)

Oral tradition holds that the Iberian Peninsula was once covered by dense oak forests through which squirrels could cross from one end to the other.

Classified as a demographic desert by UNESCO, Los Monegros desert is an arid area of my homeland (Zaragoza, Spain). My father’s family comes from a village on its border, and it became the landscape of my childhood. Nowadays, few land spots remain with vegetation, after the desertification deepened by intensive agriculture and deforestation.

Returning home means rediscovering and reconnecting with my roots and my native landscape: its harshness, its dryness, and its beauty. In ‘Montes Negros’ Eden’, the desert and I collaborate, unveiling the environmental story of Los Monegros through local myth, poetry and folklore, and its social and political dimensions.

The work combines photographs with documents, sound recordings, and text, interweaving folk tales, the testimony of local residents, scientific research and collaboration with local museums. The photographic techniques are woven into the story itself: orange filters that burn the digital image; cyanotypes toned with oak galls, providing a direct trace of the forest that "once covered this land"; black-and-white analogue photography; and herbs and plants gathered, scanned, and physically incorporated into the work.

In the meantime, 31.5% of Spanish territory is already affected by desertification. 80% of the country is at risk of becoming a desert within this century due to climate change. Over 75% of the Earth’s land area is degraded, and 90% could become degraded by 2050.