100. Pilgrim, Santiago de Compostella, by Manuel G. Vicente
Scanned from his book Peregrinos, which I bought on the afternoon of the day my own pilgrimage to Santiago finished, after two and a half months of walking from the cathedral in Le Puy, France, and I had finally shown my Pilgrim's Passport to the appropriate authorities and been given my credentiale, and having found a place to stay. My journey was over.
Most of the published photography from the Camino tends to focus lovingly on the landscapes the pilgrims walk through, and indeed, I seem to remember most of it as sensational. But such books tend to miss the main event, being the pilgrims themselves. This is the only book I have seen that gets it right.
And this image, of one pilgrim at the end of the journey, gets it absolutely right. |