Spain
Joan
Alvado
The Last Man on Earth
Located in the mountainous interior of Spain, the so-called “Serranía Celtibérica” is the second most depopulated area of Europe, after Nordic Lapland. The demographic indicators of the area are scary: with an extension of 65,835 km2 (double of the total territory of Belgium), the population density is just 7.34 inhabitants per km2.
This condition of extreme depopulation has set off alarms in Spain, where the area has become widely known as Lapland of the South.
Depopulation is consequence of migratory flows linked to the current economic model, where the abandonment of the primary sector leaves large areas orphan of an economic source. Since we cannot foresee an alternative economic engine for these areas.
Joan hypothesises that depopulation is not reversible and is a generic phenomenon in developed countries. So we can glimpse a future in which larger and larger areas on Earth will be totally or partially deprived of the presence of man. And life in these areas will not be as we know it today.
Based on these premises, and with Lapland of the South just as a geographical starting frame, "The Last Man on Earth" is an essay in which Joan raises open questions on what the future of these territories might be. To avoid the standard nostalgic approach about the rural world, he chooses to reinterpret the landscape and its inhabitants, generating a different view on the nature of these places. A vision, with a point of separation over reality, that challenges our perception of the territory, making it a fantastic, unknown place.
How will these areas look in 30, 40 or 50 years? What remains when a population disappears?
About Joan
Joan Alvado (Altea, 1979) is a photographer based in Barcelona since 2005. His work is based on the use of imagination as a tool to reinterpret the territory and transcend documentary representation.
Part of his work resides in public and private collections in Germany, the United States, Portugal, France and Spain. He has exhibited in spaces such as the Palau de la Virreïna (Barcelona), Fototeca de Cuba (La Habana), the Marion Center for Photographic Arts (San Diego, USA), Museum of Photography of the Antonio Pérez Foundation (Cuenca), Circulations festival (Paris), the Instituto Cervantes in Belgrade or the Michael Horbach Foundation, in Köln.
His projects have been published in international media such as Newsweek, CNN, The Washington Post, El País, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Liberation, Fisheye, Burn Magazine, Leica Fotografie International (LFI), El País or La Repubblica, among others.
In 2022, he receives the Galician Prize for Contemporary Photography. In 2024, Alvado is working in a new project in Normandy (France), invited by the fes val Planches Contact and the museum Ɵ Les Franciscaines de Deauville, working in the viking presence and scandinavian heritage on this territory.
He is represented by the art gallery Marisa Marimón.
Learn more
To learn more about Joan Alvado and his work visit: www.joanalvado.com