Greenhouses and sheep in Torre Pacheco

Discover the story behind documenting the pedanías of Murcia. Learn how a landscape photographer captured rural hamlets and traditional life in Spain.

A massive visual documentation project

Between 2008 and 2009, I undertook a massive visual documentation project for the Integra Foundation, tasked with capturing the hidden hamlets of southeastern Spain. In the Region of Murcia, administrative territories are divided into forty-five municipalities, which in turn govern dozens of smaller outlying villages known locally as pedanías.

While an image bank already existed for the main municipal capitals, these smaller dependent communities remained largely unrecorded. To fill this gap, a team of three photographers set out to catalog every single pedanía across the region. My assignment covered the vast coastal stretch from San Pedro del Pinatar down to Águilas, as well as the outlying districts surrounding the city of Murcia, a single municipality that encompasses fifty-five distinct pedanías.

The Art of High-Volume Documentary Photography

Photographing hundreds of obscure villages within a strict timeline transformed artistic exploration into a disciplined production workflow. The assignment required delivering at least three high-quality images per pedanía on a tight schedule, eliminating the luxury of waiting for ideal lighting or dramatic weather.

The primary challenge lay in identifying a defining visual character in hamlets that often consisted of little more than a modest cluster of houses without obvious landmarks. Furthermore, strict project guidelines required clean compositions, prohibiting recognizable faces, litter, dilapidated ruins, or neglected structures that might portray the area unfavorably. Capturing the distinct identity of each quiet community demanded sharp observation and rapid framing on the move.

Traditional Shepherding in the Changing Campo de Cartagena

One of the most memorable encounters of the project occurred while navigating the intensive agricultural plains around Torre Pacheco. Among sprawling industrial greenhouses, I spotted a shepherd guiding his flock of sheep along a narrow dirt pathway. Squeezed between the concrete banks of the Canal del Campo de Cartagena on one side and endless rows of plastic greenhouses on the other, the scene offered a striking contrast between ancient heritage and modern industry.

Where livestock once roamed open pastureland, massive agricultural infrastructure now dominates the terrain. Framing this solitary shepherd navigating a maze of modern canals and paved roads felt like documenting a vanishing era, capturing what may very well be the final generation practicing traditional pastoral life in rural Murcia.