Two guitars

Madrid seems to be full of impromptu street performances of one kind or another. My

previous visit to Madrid had been in the early seventies, a few years before the death of the

dictator Franco, and Madrid struck me then as being an unfriendly, austere city with little but

the Prado to recommend it. That was a long time ago, and since then Spain, despite crippling

social and economic problems, has flowered as a tourist destination with excellent transport

links. Who would have thought of Bilbao, a stinking, ugly fishing port in the 1970s, as the

venue for a world-renowned Gehry art gallery? So Spain has been transformed since the

Franco years and the good-natured, vibrant, artistic qualities of its people once more evident

everywhere you go.

These two guitarists held a large crowd in a street market spellbound for an hour or more

and I was gradually able to work my way forward to take a picture. To eliminate the crowd, I

kept the composition tightly to the hands and guitars, and the strong sepia toning and added

grain seemed to be natural for the image.

Madrid seems to be full of impromptu street performances of one kind or another. My previous

visit to Madrid had been in the early seventies, a few years before the death of the dictator

Franco, and Madrid struck me then as being an unfriendly, austere city with little but the Prado

to recommend it. That was a long time ago, and since then Spain, despite crippling social and

economic problems, has flowered as a tourist destination with excellent transport links. Who

would have thought of Bilbao, a stinking, ugly fishing port in the 1970s, as the venue for a

world-renowned Gehry art gallery? So Spain has been transformed since the Franco years and

the good-natured, vibrant, artistic qualities of its people once more evident everywhere you go.

These two guitarists held a large crowd in a street market spellbound for an hour or more and

I was gradually able to work my way forward to take a picture. To eliminate the crowd, I kept

the composition tightly to the hands and guitars, and the strong sepia toning and added grain

seemed to be natural for the image.