Photography Exhibition
‘Horta i tradició’ (Part 1)
Carmen
José Luis Iniesta
Carmen Bernet, a farmer from Alboraia and the most charming woman I have ever met…
‘My name is Carmen and I have worked the land all my life. I married a farmer when I was 23 and began selling at the wholesale produce market. Sadly, he died very young and I had to take charge of everything myself: planting, watering, harvesting and selling. Through a great deal of work, I was able to buy a tractor and some machinery.
Now that I am 80, my children manage the fields while I sort the produce and go to the Tira de Comptar market before dawn. Everyone there knows me. I present my produce carefully, and buyers will purchase my aubergines even when they are covered because they trust me.
Farm work used to receive much more recognition. If it rained one day, the produce would be worth twice as much the next. Now, however much effort it takes, the price stays the same. People do not value the work behind every piece of produce.
The loveliest thing? My late husband always said he could not have kept the farm going without me: “I don’t know what I would do without you,” he would tell me.’
Listen
José Luis Iniesta
If you close your eyes and listen carefully, you will hear water splashing; you might even imagine yourself beside a small stream…
There are captivating atmospheres that most people never encounter. When you have the privilege of discovering one, the feeling is difficult to put into words.
There is only silence, broken by the constant movement of a repetitive yet hypnotic task. Spring garlic is harvested with a great deal of soil around its roots, and small farmers still clean it by hand.
If I am lucky, the next time you see a gleaming, perfectly tied and presented bundle of garlic, perhaps you will hear the water.
Essential
José Luis Iniesta
Some plots in our market gardens could not be worked without animals. Farmers who do not own a tractor or mechanical cultivator must seek help, usually from other farmers.
The circumstances vary. Some plots are too difficult for a tractor to enter or reach; others are smallholdings where owning machinery is not worthwhile. In these cases, an animal-drawn traditional plough guided by expert hands provides an ancient, sustainable system in which people and animals work together in an extraordinarily beautiful synergy…
ESSENTIAL…
Fangueig (Mud Ploughing)
Amparo Llópez
Mud-ploughing work in El Palmar in February 2023.
Montoliu
Ana López García
What would Valencia’s market gardens be without their traditional barracas and the people who keep them alive? The Barraca de Montoliu is a characteristic place where the pleasure of local food meets Valencia’s traditional architectural landscape.
The Other Reality
Anais Moreno Martínez
Sometimes we do not realise how important it is to care for what surrounds us—the other reality of the beauty we possess.
Always Beating
Anais Moreno Martínez
The heartbeat of our land, which defines us as Valencians.
In Abundance
Encarna Dolz
Geometry
Encarna Dolz
A Sea of Artichokes
Gabriela Barrera
The heartbeat of our land, which defines us as Valencians.
The Protagonists of the Market Gardens
Gabriela Barrera
The irrigation channels can be seen as the protagonists of the market gardens, embracing and bordering every plot with that most precious source of nourishment: water.
Beloved Shadows
Giovanna Tonzanu
In this photograph, shadows fall across the white wall of one of the ‘water houses’ that appear to float above the rice fields. Reflection, doubling and mirage are among the elements that make L’Albufera magical: shadows unfold like the white houses repeated in one another and in the water, creating a link between beauty and the simplicity of nature and farming.
Mirage
Giovanna Tonzanu
The landscape creates this sensation through a beauty that doubles and expands in the water. It is ephemeral and changing: its light and shapes depend on the time of day, the season and, above all, the crops. Perhaps most surprising is finding this magical place only a few kilometres from Valencia—a place that is not hidden, but must be sought out, recognised and loved.
Market-Garden Typology
Helena Torregrosa Rodríguez
Valencia’s market gardens, like the wider city, evolve and acquire new forms and materials. It is common to see modest structures whose sole reason for existing is their function.
I offer this photograph as an ode to the people who preserve the traditional appearance of their buildings and thereby help conserve Valencia’s historic image.
Remnants of the Market Gardens in the Built Environment
Helena Torregrosa Rodríguez
The city has grown over the market gardens, spreading across them until very little remains.
Fortunately, some sizeable areas have survived because of their unusual position between barriers or for other reasons. These pockets of cultivated land create a distinctive landscape, with abrupt boundaries between market gardens and city—one of Valencia’s most characteristic features.
There are even more unusual cases, such as the one photographed here, where the city has completely enclosed a single plot that is still worked and cultivated.
Contrast
Isabel Ros Mangriñán
Organisation
Isabel Ros Mangriñán
Fishing at Sunset
Joan Carles Pérez
