Nobody Expects the Spanish Revolution

Richard

You may have read about the demonstrations going on in Madrid, Barcelona and about 60 other cities in Spain. Municipal elections are this Sunday. For the past several days, thousands of mostly young people have been protesting the appalling state of the Spanish economy and the lack of meaningful difference between the two major political parties. Hundreds are camped out at the Puerta del Sol, in the center of Madrid. These shots are from yesterday:

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The government has said that starting tomorrow, the protests would be in violation of election laws, which prohibit campaigning and demonstrations 48 hours prior to an election. It's unclear what will happen if the protesters refuse to leave. It's a no-win situation for the ruling party (PSOE)--but they are expected to sustain heavy losses in any event. Interesting times.

Full disclosure: I shamelessly stole the title of this thread from a pic I saw of a banner in Barcelona. Governments come and go but Monty Python is forever. :wink

Nmahooch

Nice pics. well done.

Juano

Great series Richard! clap Ahora vuela por las calles...

Richard

Thanks guys.

Update: The courts have definitely ruled that the demonstrations are illegal, but the government has wisely decided not to take any enforcement action as long as the demonstrations remain peaceful. Smart move, IMO. Here was the scene as of a couple of hours ago:

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BTW, I gather this whole thing has not received much attention in the American media--I wrote to a friend about it and she didn't know what the hell I was talking about. I guess they're more interested in the fact that the world didn't come to an end today as predicted. Here's a link to the current Google News index.

Nmahooch

good job getting out there among the people to capture these images

DonRicklin

Richard, nice series. And no, I have seen no news, locally of this. Libya and Obamas words about Israeli borders are of more interest!

Is the title a Monty Python reference or possibly Firesign Theatre?

Don

ian408

It's interesting to see people talking on phones. I would imagine there's a fair amount of blogging/facebooking too.

Very nice series of images Richard

michswiss

Richard, it made the news in Australia. I'd like to see more shots of the young'uns faces.

(Oh, and Francisco Franco is still dead... Someone needed to call out the old SNL skit.)

Richard

Thanks, everyone. The elections are over and as expected, the so-called Socialists got stomped. The protestors have vowed to stay another week in the Puerta del Sol, but my guess is that they're going to get bored before that. Dunno.

DonRicklin wrote: »

Is the title a Monty Python reference or possibly Firesign Theatre? Don

Monty Python: Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition.

ian408 wrote: »

It's interesting to see people talking on phones. I would imagine there's a fair amount of blogging/facebooking too.

Yep. Some tweeting as well, though SMS service is more expensive here than in the US, and hence less popular.

michswiss wrote: »

(Oh, and Francisco Franco is still dead... Someone needed to call out the old SNL skit.)

He had been dead long before they made it official.

colourbox

Richard wrote: »

BTW, I gather this whole thing has not received much attention in the American media--I wrote to a friend about it and she didn't know what the hell I was talking about.

You are correct. Spain is one of my favorite countries to visit, so I notice news about it, but the only reason I have heard of these demonstrations is that you posted these pictures. Thanks.

Nyarthlopic

Very, very cool set, Richard! Thank you for sharing!

Richard

Latest update: The large demonstrations have stopped, but there are still several hundred people camped in the Puerta del Sol and they plan to remain there at least until Sunday. Smaller demonstrations and discussion groups are being organized at the neighborhood level. It looks as if at least some of the American media have picked up the story--I've seen articles in the NYT, WP, Time and (of course) the HuffPo. Here are some shots from yesterday:

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"The biggest crime is to be silent"

Jenn wanted to see some faces, so here are a few.

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The woman on the left is a sign-language interpreter

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Thanks for looking.

bdcolen

Richard wrote: »

You may have read about the demonstrations going on in Madrid, Barcelona and about 60 other cities in Spain. Municipal elections are this Sunday. For the past several days, thousands of mostly young people have been protesting the appalling state of the Spanish economy and the lack of meaningful difference between the two major political parties. Hundreds are camped out at the Puerta del Sol, in the center of Madrid. These shots are from yesterday:




The government has said that starting tomorrow, the protests would be in violation of election laws, which prohibit campaigning and demonstrations 48 hours prior to an election. It's unclear what will happen if the protesters refuse to leave. It's a no-win situation for the ruling party (PSOE)--but they are expected to sustain heavy losses in any event. Interesting times.

Full disclosure: I shamelessly stole the title of this thread from a pic I saw of a banner in Barcelona. Governments come and go but Monty Python is forever.

LOVE #3, Richard

Richard

bdcolen wrote: »

LOVE #3, Richard

Thanks, BD. It doesn't really tell the story as a standalone but it's a nice image nevertheless.

richardman

Some excellent example of street journalism. Well done. I am curious to your choice of converting some to B&W. What criteria do you use to guide your decisions?

Richard

richardman wrote: »

Some excellent example of street journalism. Well done. I am curious to your choice of converting some to B&W. What criteria do you use to guide your decisions?

I don't follow any strict rules in the matter. Color tends to be harder on the street because there are so many ugly ones to deal with. Some of the B&Ws above were shot under a blue translucent tarp that covered the area. They were a color correction nightmare, so I gave up. My normal processing involves producing a high-contrast B&W version, which I then use to control the luminosity of the color version. So I end up with both color and B&W and simply choose the one I like best.

WillCAD

Nice series, Richard. I like the fact that they're in color; I've always thought that b/w takes something away from most images.

I don't know why - but the thing that stood out amongst these pics the most to me was the guy in frame #8 who was standing next to a pylon, pointing his camera directly at you. I'd love to see the image he shot in return!