Kate Mellor
My work as a photographer with EDDEA Arquitectos allowed an exploration of a variety of subject material and I could follow any approach towards architecture and the environment that I chose. In fact, I often chose to explore the interests and concerns of the architects and urban planners based at the studio.
Apart from photographing EDDEA buildings in use I also began to examine boundaries between areas or conditions. I found the edges between states were often physically or visually indefinite due to the climatic conditions. Although intense sun created strong delineation between light and shade, heat and cool, at the same time it generated fluid forms and relationships with built structures. Strong light gave rise to vivid reflections, dissolving glass and breaking up the visual coherence of buildings. My personal project eventually focused on secaderos, sheds built for the purpose of drying tobacco. Offering protection from rain yet encouraging air circulation the effectiveness of the structures depended on a flow between interior and exterior.
Andalucia once had a thriving tobacco industry, the climate ideally suiting cultivation of the crop. Production declined due to a number of reasons, one of these being higher quality imports from Latin America. The Real Fábrica de Tabacas in Sevilla, for example, closed in the 1950s and production moved to smaller, more modern premises in Los Remedios. I could find few secaderos remaining in the Sevilla area and these tended to be inaccessible. In Granada province, however, there are many traditional secaderos in ruins which still have the cords in the rafters from which the tobacco would hang to dry. I photographed, using a pinhole camera, three main types of construction, sheds made from thin wooden palings, clad in brushwood or airy buildings of brick. These sheltered the tobacco from the heat of the sun but allowed for the air to flow freely through the walls to dry the leaves. I was told that tobacco is still grown in the province of Granada and that some secaderos are still used for their original purpose. Subsidies for producing the crop have recently dropped because the policy for subsidizing tobacco growing was inconsistent with the governmental priority of addressing health issues. I was in Granada at the wrong time of year to see tobacco drying but neither did I discover any crops in fields or garden plots.
While some secaderos are now used as simple sheds and barns, others have been converted for domestic use, added onto dwellings. In Ogijares, a village on the outskirts of the city of Granada, a former secadero has been converted to a library, the Biblioteca María Lejárraga. The architect for this project was Ruben Cortés of M57 Arquitectos, based in Granada.
Secadero Series
Pinhole Photograph. Image credits:
1. Belicena2. Secadero in Belicena, Granada province.
2. Belicena2_Interior. Interior of Secadero in Belicena, Granada province.
3. Belicena1. Secadero in Belicena, Granada province.
5. FuenteVacqueras1. Secadero in Fuente Vacqueras, Granada province.
6. FuenteVacqueras3. Secadero in Fuente Vacqueras, Granada province.
4. CullarVega1. Secadero in the region of Cullar Vega, Granada province.
7. BibliotecaMariaLejarraga_Exterior. Exterior of Biblioteca María Lejarraga, Ogijares, Granada. Converted Secadero. Architect: Rubens Cortés of M57 Arquitectos.
8. BibliotecaMariaLejarraga_Interior. Interior of Biblioteca María Lejarraga, Ogijares, Granada. Converted Secadero. Architect: Rubens Cortés of M57 Arquitectos.
© Kate Mellor 2013
Pinhole Photograph. Image credits:
1. Belicena2. Secadero in Belicena, Granada province.
2. Belicena2_Interior. Interior of Secadero in Belicena, Granada province.
3. Belicena1. Secadero in Belicena, Granada province.
5. FuenteVacqueras1. Secadero in Fuente Vacqueras, Granada province.
6. FuenteVacqueras3. Secadero in Fuente Vacqueras, Granada province.
4. CullarVega1. Secadero in the region of Cullar Vega, Granada province.
7. BibliotecaMariaLejarraga_Exterior. Exterior of Biblioteca María Lejarraga, Ogijares, Granada. Converted Secadero. Architect: Rubens Cortés of M57 Arquitectos.
8. BibliotecaMariaLejarraga_Interior. Interior of Biblioteca María Lejarraga, Ogijares, Granada. Converted Secadero. Architect: Rubens Cortés of M57 Arquitectos.
© Kate Mellor 2013