España Oculta is the result of many years of work during which Cristina García Rodero travelled through Spanish villages and communities, photographing popular celebrations, religious ceremonies, pilgrimages and rituals in which the sacred and the profane constantly coexist. Her black-and-white photographs approach these events from within, focusing particularly on the gestures, bodies and expressions of those taking part.
The French edition, published under the title Espagne Occulte, retains the project's photographic core and brings together 126 black-and-white photographs. The edition includes texts by Claude Nori and Christian Caujolle and presents the work in a large square format measuring approximately 29,5 × 29,5 cm. Gazette Drouot
Beyond documenting Spanish traditions, García Rodero's photographs show situations in which devotion, celebration, desire, pain, violence, humour and death frequently appear in close proximity. This combination makes Espagne Occulte something more complex than a simple ethnographic inventory of festivals and customs. The images build a portrait of rural Spain, where practices and rituals passed down through generations still survived at the end of the twentieth century.
This Contrejour edition is particularly interesting as the first French edition of one of the most internationally recognised Spanish photobooks, published just one year after the original publication of España Oculta.
