Vicente Goti has left his flock after 60 years working and he has no heirs to keep on with his profession, a millenary trade about to disappear. Despite of technology development, shepherds have a negative vision of their future. However, they renegade the idea of leaving the work which has fulfilled and that nowadays fulfils their lives.

In the nearings of the Olimpic Stadium of Barcelona there is a triangular terrace surrounded by trees where every weekend a lot of softball passionated people pull out their gloves and bates to avoid getting stuck in a rut. This is a photo - report about a small community of the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Venezuela.

Regardless of the colours of their clothes, they all have one thin in common: they are, above all, friends who want to have fun practicing the sport they most enjoy: softball.

The Workplace Relations Commission oblied a Irish family to pay a fine of 9.229 euros due to the work explotation their Au Pair was submitted. The judgement shows the reality in which young Au Pairs live nowadays: without an employment contract and neither an insurance and healthcare. All this, abroad.

An airplane needs to make countless checks prior to take-off. Between all of them them, there is a check that goes unnoticed for passengers. This is the brilliant work that the falcons do keeping the track free of animals. Without the approval of these birds, the airplanes do not have permission to take off.

In Txorierri (Bizkaia), which means Village of Birds in Euskara, falcons reign at the airport. The valley is the transit area for many species. Every year 100 species of birds pass over our sky, without taking into account the absent-minded birds that separate from their flocks, such as geese, seagulls... Fernando Pinto Velasco is about to retire. He has spent 37 years working between planes for AENA, of which 35 have been at Bilbao airport, and he knows well the falcons that work there closely.

Jesús Javier and Aitor Zarate brothers, Ricardo Arrate and Jose Antonio Lekue are witnesses of the attack mushrooms are carrying out in the pine groves of Euskal Herria. The mushrooms are attacking on Pinus radiata, a weak Californian specie which has been living in the Basque Country for a century and humans does not how to bring a a solution to this plague.

What is next?

Bilbao, august 2009

I’ll never forget that night dinning in that German restaurant. It may sound strange but it surrealistic to think that I took that decision of riding more than 10.000kms with a close friend on impulse while I was eating a selection of sausages with him

Morocco taught me to smell and breath essences which were completely unknown for me. We drove through Moroccan territory and crossed its huge and rocky Atlas, speaking with a lot of interesting and odd people until we stumbled on the barely inhabited Sahara dessert. I had never known the literal meaning of the word Silence: without hustle and bustle, cars or shouting. During the night I only listened the noise of insects and animals wandering round. Nothing more.

After some days being without connection with the rest of the world, we arrived to Chinguetti, a town surrounded by dunes and loneliness, were the few kids living there used to run through small streets or play kicking rocks. It was there that we knew Sidi, a professor of French who offered his house and worked as a guide for us during a pair of days. That’s what I enjoyed most of Mauritania: the gentleness of its people. From that time on I think that we should learn about these role models

It’s said that in the life we have to do at least a not conventional journey, avoiding packed holidays. With Mauritania I personally think that I started a new era of going abroad.

Lands, april 2014

AMAIA ZUZA RÁNDEZ | Amazingly, not many time ago, Lands was a deserted, hated and a feared place for a lot of people, practically unpopulated. Nevertheless, today, in every step made in Lands we can only find infinite lakes, endless pine forests, magical sunsets, brave waves, surfers or the relaxing sound of silence. Known as ‘French Sahara’ in the past, it has become in a perfect oasis that does not dilutes when we approach to it.

It was the undesirable Gallic corner, stuffed between the Basque Country and the north of Aquitaine. Furthermore, it was a ferocious, wild area, infected with mosquitos carriers of Malaria and victim of irritation of the Atlantic sea. The nightmare became in a dream at the beginning of XIX century, when State Dune Commission was founded. It stabilized the coast of Lands. But the most significant change came in 1857, when Napoleon III discovered Lands. He was fascinated with that place, and once he bought 8.000 hectares, he sowed those lands with Pinus Pinaster, a kind of a maritime pine which has become in the most important symbol of Lands. The rest was a matter of time.

Cancun, April 2008

Placed in the northeast of the state of Quintana Roo, in the east of Mexiko, 3.004.802 people visited Cancun in an average of 190 flights every day during 2007. Nowadays, most visited area is the one called Isla Cancun or Zona Hotelera, with 148 hotels of 28.218 bedrooms and 380 restaurants in total in an area of 23km. Homelesses or deprived people have been taken to the outskirts of the city to provide the tourists a good image of Cancun.

Cancun has a double-edged-sword which provides it’s citizen breath while their culture, one of the most ancient of the world is being invaded and over-exploited by mass-tourism, a parasite which produces money and destroy one of the most important cultures of the world.

Berlin is The History (ours). It is told with an imperative tone and with the voice of a shy and obedient boy, mixing the exact portion of dignity and shyness. Not being especially nice, it turns to be beautiful, delicate and hypnotic, without necessarily being ugly, there’s always a place that devastates the bowels of whom visits it. It’s a human city in the most literal meaning; imperfect, regretted, the one that remembers and forgets, brave and contradictory; demolished bedrocks of an atrocious past which still remains despite the fact that it seems to be far away.

The German capital hosts a big deal of monuments against the oblivion. In the same time, there are deprived glimpses left in a lot of alleys, lost, looking for food in the rubbish. Berlin fights against injustice and slaughters, but it’s the same one that produces and is accomplice of its own victims. It dissimulates the natural darkness with illuminated with the most mythologized capitalism and ignores the presence of the people sleeping rough (because in the moonlight, signs light up but do not warm up).

Politely, it gives to the voyager for a hand out for the path towards the past. In the meantime, bulldozers don’t stop working in a work that seem to not have an end. In Berlin, silence can be found in the consciences and memories. In the streets life produces its own noises and there are not always affectionate.

June 2017

Three Michelin Stars chef Eneko Atxa started his new restaurant ENEKO, a cheaper option compared with Azurmendi and offering a closer treatment to the customers, back to the roots. The menu, priced at 55 euros (without VAT) includes nine plates of high cuisine.

The unique and incomparable bopper band was born in 2004 not in Bilbao but in Santutxu, a charming territory of people of good. Originally compossed by Txefo K-Billy (drums), Xixo Yantani (guitarrist), Ignatius Johnny (teclist), Wily Kalambres Wallace (sax), the band started its walk with instrumental covers of Jimi Hendrix and Creedence.

After some well received concerts, in 2006 they launched their first demo: Dressin’ the Puppet. In 2007 Black Lolita / Watermelon Man; in 2008 el CD/LP Play it Again! (Considered their first official CD), in 2009 the Live in Bilbao DVD; in 2010 the re-mixed CD/LP Remix it Again!, and in 2011 Shakin’ the Hood, this last one considered the second official CD. In January 2015 they published The Cherry Boppers meet Dr Baltz.

11 years between recording studios and stages have been decisive for the band to offer unforgettable spectacles and they have been worthy acclaimed in Spanish national music festivals like Viñarock, Imagina Funk, Donostia Jazz festival, Buenafuente show… in addition, The Cherry Boppers have made two winter tours in Holland and took part in France and Germany music festivals like Saint Paul Soul Jazz Festival, Theatron Festival, Paradiso Club Amsterdam…

Antique black rooted dances like the ones this band puts in practice have been guilty of so much appreciation, respect and acclaim among the public.

Barcelona (Spain), 2012/2013

Mercy Mercy is a modern soul band of Barcelona headed by actress and singer Laya Martí (Yo Soy la Juani (2006), Los Amantes Pasajeros (2013), Los Amores Inconclusos (2014)). The formation is compossed of three femenine voices, a piano, drums and a bass.

In the setlist there is a special mention to some songs of the 70’s and 80’s like Michael Sambello’s Maniac, Etta James’ That Man, Caro Emeralds’ or more actuals like Laura Fygi’s Sabor a Mí or Cee Lo Greens’ Fuck You, among others.

The band stands out among other soul formations because of the 70’s vintage clothing and the high quality of their songs. Their performances have taken place above all in Barcelona (Spain).

The third edition of BBK Musik Legends this year brought artists from the mid-20th century to Txorierri (Bizkaia) last June with a line-up led by Jeff Beck, Glenn Hughes, Steve Windwood, Mavis Staples, John Cale and Wilko Johnson.

The two-day festival brought together Siniestro Total, Gari & Maldanbera, Mavis Staples, Wilko Johnson, Steve Windwood, Motxila 21, Moonshakers, Ana Popovic, John Cale, Glenn Hughes and Jeff Beck. During the performances, great myths of the past could be reproduced on Ola's stage. The most acclaimed artists were Mavis Staples, Steve Windwood and Glenn Hughes. And the biggest surprise of the festival was offered by the legendary Jeff Beck, whose arrogance did not allow the public or the photojournalists to record video or take photographs of the concert.