Pablo Lasaosa Vidal (Pamplona, 1992), is a young photographer freelance who this weekend left, on their own initiative, the comfort of their home to fully immerse themselves in the desolate scene of a catastrophe, the one that Dana left behind during her visit to Valencia.
Lasaosa usually works for this newspaper and also collaborates with El País. Serves Navarra.com from a bar Paiporta: “Tobacco and slot machines are to the top of the mud“, he comments at one point in the conversation.
He regrets that Residents of disaster areas are “alone, abandoned” and with mud everywhere.” And it’s because, despite the cleaning efforts of neighbors and volunteers, the mud resists: “You remove 7 kilos and 18 more appear”, comments the photographer sadly.
Precisely, he decides to go down to Valence this weekend moved by the images that came to him from real devastation. “I came because this type of disaster is very impressive. Seeing that people were going through such a bad time, I thought that I had to contribute, as much as possible, through images, to give a few more voices neighbors affected“, he explains. “Now I’m in Paiporta and I’m freaking out.”
He insists that he felt the need to convey what is happening in Valencia through photography. “This is our job. We have to move to the most affected areas because if what is happening is not transmitted, it does not exist,” he said. And he points out that if something happens and there is no media or impact on social networks, “it’s as if it didn’t happen.” This therefore justifies the important work of photojournalism to show everything that is happening in Valencia after the passage of the Dana.
He went to ground zero of the tragedy this Friday and intends to stay there until Tuesday. “The trip went pretty well, I didn’t have any problems. I went from Pamplona to Valencia via Teruel. The road was in good condition. People told me I wasn’t going to go through Castellón because they were also forecasting rain in that area, but I was lucky and arrived without any problems,” Lasaosa recalls. Access to Ground Zero is already more complicated. “You have to go to San Marcelino by public transport or with your own vehicle. It is an area that is next to the Valencia cemetery. And from there you can walk to one of the areas most affected by Dana“, he explains. Of course, you have to walk quite a bit. “Paiporta is a little over 4 kilometers away,” he illustrates.
And he remembers with a certain tone of pain the first photo he took when he arrived at Valence. “That’s when I entered Benetusser in a basement where many people were cleaning the remains of what before the disaster was a percussion music workshop. And I took out two cars crashed in the workshop itself. They had broken through the wall and, from the inside, they looked like a painting,” he said.
However, he assures that he cannot comment on a photograph which is the one which had the most impact on him. “There are many. That of man carrying jug of water with sad faceFor example. Also details of some children’s music CDs lying around in the mud. They make you rethink a lot of things, like what’s really important in this life,” he analyzes while remaining thoughtful. “The place is so desolate that everyone the images impress“, he declares.
Two days after his arrival at epicenter of tragedythis Navarrese photographer had time to chat with the neighbors and get to know their testimonials: “They tell me that, practically until now, they were alone. The volunteers have gone out of their way these days to help them.”
Lasaosa He was also able to see with his own eyes all the needs of those affected at this time for the Valencia disaster. “There are a lot of them,” he warns. “For example, baby feeding and childcare. We need formula milk. Water also because they don’t have any. And non-perishable food,” he lists. . “There is no business here. Everything is closed,” he emphasizes.
He young photographer is shown Affected by everything your eyes saw through the camera In Valence. “It’s heartbreaking. My heart sinks when I think that these people have lost everything.”
At this point in the conversation, he recalls one of the many testimonies heard these days in many areas of Valence. “A couple found their dogs floating 2.15 meters high. They had to exit through a sort of patio of half a square meter. “They broke the roof and climbed up to the first man’s neighbor’s house via a ladder that had been lowered for them.”
“Valencia is a wild scene at the moment”describe. “There are strollers and wheelchairs lying around in the mud,” he says. And he says it’s a scene he’s currently observing from the bar he’s speaking from.
Lasaosa comments that in addition to mourning those who died because of Dana, neighbors are now starting to wonder if the insurance and consortium will take care of everything. But what worries those affected the most is when they will be paid.
“These people have lost absolutely everything”remember. “People who lived in basements, of which there are many, have lost their homes, their cars and don’t even have a place to sleep.” And he tries again to sum up in one sentence what he captured at that time with his camera in Valencia: “Wherever you look, there is only destruction.”
