honorable mention
Lola Martinez spainPhoto © Lola Martinez
title
Lonesome Pine (to the Sentinel)
The shot was taken with a 9 step ND filter because I wanted to catch as much time as possible, not only to because it would resemble and tell us a more accurate story of the San Roque Pine (aka lonesome pine); but also because I wanted to understand the sight of the tree. What would the pine see? How would it feel to see trough its eyes? Standing there, still, alone, as clouds, days and decades passed by.
This Pine is a symbol of resistance that has captivated so much the locals the even had integrated it in the Municipality shield.
To me it is a sign of resistance and an environmentalist statement by itself, specially now that the original Sentinel, so beautifully portrayed by Ansel Adams, its dried and dead. It's also a statement of how loneliness can sometimes be a sign of rising beauty.
Her body of work focuses on landscape with and environmental approach.
Her photographic work has been shown in several individual and collective international exhibitions ( Venice,Italy; Porto, Portugal; London, England; Paris, France;...). She has also travelled the world doing various editorials, and published in prestigious magazines focused primarily in environmental topics, published in The Guardian, Time out, Huffingtonpost and most lately with a six day publication in El Pais Newspaper on draught problematics in Spain.
She has also received several grants for art residencies in France and Germany and has been awarded in international photography contests.
She is also a currently a professor in Photography and Film Studies (URJC), and lecturer of landscape photography at the prestigious international school EFTI in Madrid.
back to gallery
entry description
I was searching for a Sentinel pine in Madrid to feel like Ansel Adams, and I found the so-called "Lonesome pine". A single pine, standing alone, the sole survivor of two massive fires (both provoked), one in the XIX century and the second during the Spanish Civil War. It is in fact the sentinel of the valley of Guadarrama and a painful reminder of human negative and irreversible impact in nature. It is around 30 meters tall, 6m of diameter and probably has 350 years, and you can find it in the hillside of La Peñota, at 1600m of hight.The shot was taken with a 9 step ND filter because I wanted to catch as much time as possible, not only to because it would resemble and tell us a more accurate story of the San Roque Pine (aka lonesome pine); but also because I wanted to understand the sight of the tree. What would the pine see? How would it feel to see trough its eyes? Standing there, still, alone, as clouds, days and decades passed by.
This Pine is a symbol of resistance that has captivated so much the locals the even had integrated it in the Municipality shield.
To me it is a sign of resistance and an environmentalist statement by itself, specially now that the original Sentinel, so beautifully portrayed by Ansel Adams, its dried and dead. It's also a statement of how loneliness can sometimes be a sign of rising beauty.
about the photographer
Born in Madrid. Nomad, Alpinist by heart, Artist, Researcher and Professor.Her body of work focuses on landscape with and environmental approach.
Her photographic work has been shown in several individual and collective international exhibitions ( Venice,Italy; Porto, Portugal; London, England; Paris, France;...). She has also travelled the world doing various editorials, and published in prestigious magazines focused primarily in environmental topics, published in The Guardian, Time out, Huffingtonpost and most lately with a six day publication in El Pais Newspaper on draught problematics in Spain.
She has also received several grants for art residencies in France and Germany and has been awarded in international photography contests.
She is also a currently a professor in Photography and Film Studies (URJC), and lecturer of landscape photography at the prestigious international school EFTI in Madrid.
back to gallery