It is with great joy that I share these news: Urban Farmers, the book in which photographer and co-editor Valery Rizzo, the Gestalten team and yours truly have been working on for months will be out in Europe soon (April 29th)!

 

Divided in case studies, profiles, features and “activities at home” , the book, which also includes four guest essays, offers a global overview of urban agriculture across the world. From a scholar that quit academia to fight to save Mexico City’s chinampas to a passionate activist tackling food insecurity by teaching urban farming skills in Nairobi; Urban Farmers is an invitation to roll up the sleeves, start digging and ultimately grow not only vegetables but strong communities.

Writing this book has been a journey and I feel truly grateful for everything that I have learnt along the process. With special thanks to those busy farmers, activists, food justice advocates and all the others who made time for our interviews, the book couldn’t have happened without them. It does take a village!


 
 
 

 
 

For the last two decades Gabriela Fernández Orantes has been working hard to raise awareness of Mexican native corn varieties and their different flavours, protecting biodiversity and those who work the land in the process. You can read the full story -with photos- in Spanish in El País.

 
 
 

 
 

La Calle del Agua | El Salto Diario

December 2020

New article about the documentary “La Calle del Agua”, in which director Celia Viada tells the story of forgotten pioneer photographer Benjamina Miyar (1881 - 1961). Born in a rural small village in Asturias, northern Spain, Miyar was an independent woman who learnt the trade of her family, clockmaking, and run the clockmaker’s workshop when her dad passed away. She was a creative self-taught photographer who didn’t fit in the submissive role the fascist dictatorship had imposed on Spanish women. She was openly left leaning and was tortured and arrested at least four times.

The work is published in El Salto Diario, and available online.