Delving even further into the photographic language that emerged with Paloma al aire (2011), in Estudio elemental del Levante (elementary study of the Levant) (developed between 2010 and 2020), Ricardo Cases draws on the meanings offered by his immediate surroundings, the Levante region (Spain), where he finds manifestations of all phenomena, of all relationships.
 
Beyond the classic tourist icons of the beach and paella, Cases focuses on a series of identifying features with deeper and more subtle meanings. Levantine icons such as marching bands, palm groves, and bricks appear. And there appears the story of the red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus): a parasite originating from Southeast Asia that attacks palm trees, withering and causing their death.
 
The triangle formed by the palm tree, the brass band, and the red palm weevil defines the spiritual map of the systemic crash of contemporary Spain, a violent and jarring clash. Everything forms a dissonant symphony. In the images themselves, the shrill scream of metal can be heard like a desperate warning.
In the book, created from the idea of ​​collage, the images appear to have been affected by the plague, with some areas fading. The superposition creates a delirious score whose musical structure is chaos and provisionality. Elementary Study of the Levant is, ultimately, a requiem for a way of life that had its moment of mad splendor.