The Andalusian Center of Photography (CAF) and the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH), both dependent on the Ministry of Culture and Sports, have launched ‘Mission Andalusia’, a project to map the Andalusian rural landscape from the contemporary perspective of eight renowned Andalusian photographers.
Curated by Juan María Rodríguez, director of CAF, and with the scientific direction of Silvia Fernández Cacho, head of the Cultural Landscape Laboratory of IAPH, this project «represents the first broad view of the Andalusian landscape led by Andalusian photographers», highlighted the Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, during the presentation of this program, held at the CAF headquarters in Almería. «One of the fundamental values of the Andalusian Center of Photography is to reflect on the visual identity of the reality that surrounds it, and the landscape plays a very prominent role in this,» emphasized the Minister.
Laura León (Seville, 1976), Manuel Espaliú (Seville, 1970), Santi Donaire (Jaén, 1988), María Clauss (Huelva, 1969), Pablo López (Granada, 1984), Julián Ochoa (San Fernando, 1961), David Jiménez (Alcalá de Guadaira, 1970) and Susana Girón (Huéscar, 1975), all closely linked to landscape photography, born and mostly based in Andalusia, are the photographers selected by the curator of this proposal, the director of CAF, Juan María Rodríguez, to provide an author’s record of around forty Andalusian rural landscapes. The project will culminate in February 2026, with the opening of an exhibition that will occupy the two main halls of the Andalusian Center of Photography in Almería.
All Andalusian locations – valleys, plains, high plateaus, sub-desert steppes, mountain ranges, countryside, coastline, or marshes – have been selected in conjunction with Silvia Fernández Cacho, a European doctor in History and head of the Cultural Landscape Laboratory of IAPH, to ensure that «no natural landscape is excluded». «‘Mission Andalusia will contribute to a modernization of the public view of the Andalusian landscape, avoiding the clichés and the picturesque treatment with which the territory of Andalusia has been traditionally represented. In this way, the cultural, ethnographic, and geographical heritage of the landscape will be emphasized,» highlighted del Pozo.
Del Pozo emphasized the «absolute creative freedom» with which these photographers are working, only subject to the mandatory use of color and the 3:2 and 3:4 format, the most adaptable for landscape photography. «We seek an author’s perspective, a personal view, documenting a space and a place, at a specific moment and under a prism of creativity,» added the Minister.
The total number of images created by the eight photographers, around 350, will be deposited at CAF, thus becoming part of the cultural center’s collection. They will also be made available to the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage for use as a dissemination tool and for technical and scientific purposes. Additionally, around 120 images will be exhibited in the planned show next year, accompanied by the publication of a comprehensive catalog.
Photographic missions
The cataloging of the landscape and heritage through photography was undertaken shortly after the introduction of the new photographic technique in 1839, through missions that began in France with the daguerreotype itself, in which a group of photographers documented various types of heritage.
Since then, different missions, such as the Heliographic Mission of 1851 in France, the Farm Security Administration’s mission in rural areas of the United States in 1937, or those decreed from 1984 by DATAR, a French organization dedicated to territorial organization, among the most famous, have recorded the memory and changes in the landscape and heritage, and today constitute a substantial source of knowledge and historical archives.
The mission that the ‘Mission Andalusia’ project is now deploying throughout Andalusia presents an authorial perspective, at the boundaries of recording and new photographic documentary. In this way, it aims to provide a current view of the community and demonstrate how the daily life of the towns of Andalusia coexists and is imbued with the natural landscape of Andalusia, an interaction that, through literature or painting, has enriched the history of Spanish culture.
Thus, ‘Mission Andalusia’ aims to contribute to the dissemination and consideration of the landscape, a value already recognized by the first Autonomy Statute of 1981 and further reinforced by the current Autonomy Statute of Andalusia of 2007, both in recognizing the need to protect its environmental richness and variety, its enjoyment, and its legacy to future generations, as well as its contribution as a defining element of Andalusian identity.