Laocoonte Salvaje

Photography, music, and dance collide in this incredibly original book by Spanish photographer Jorge Ribalta. Through hundreds of black-and-white photos, the author seeks to capture the essence of flamenco, the traditional Spanish music and dance. Rather than focus on the names and personalities, however, Ribalta is more concerned with the setting and sense of place, and his images set the structure of flamenco against a varied backdrop, highlighting historic and emblematic locations as well as forgotten and marginalized sites. In addition to the photographs, this exploration also includes a conversation between the photographer and Pedro Romero and Gerhard Steingress, two experts on flamenco, about its iconography and the dominant modes of visual representation of its culture. Throughout their discussion, the three men address topics such as urbanism, economy, and social movements, presenting readers with an intellectual approach to flamenco that perfectly complements the more visceral one provided by the images.