El Camino Interior


  • Photographer
    Cristina Casotto
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2014-2012
  • Technical Info
    Digital

The rhythm of daily life induces us to don't care about ourselves, about what we are doing or who we are. Sometimes the life doesn't go according to the plan and this push us to ask questions and trying get answers; often it means the intention of taking a break. In the last years a lot of people decided to walk on this Way which leads to Santiago de Compostela. The purpose of "El Camino Interior" project is to show the spiritual-emotional aspect of these experience. These five pictures tell part of my story on the St. James way.

Story

For over 1200 years people have walked Spain's ancient pilgrimage paths which leads to Santiago de Compostela. The importance of this city is due because the remains of St. James apostle; he was the only apostle whose martyrdom is written in the Bible.
My interest in knowing the deep aspects of life made me curious in exploring the "Camino de Santiago".
There are a lot of routes which reaches to Santiago de Compostela and one way, the "Camino Francès", was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987 and inscribed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in 1993. The last 30 years have seen an extraordinary revival of interest in the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It is sufficient take a look to the statistics; every years tens of thousands of pilgrims, between 150.000 and 200.000, from all over the world walks through these ways on foot, by bike, by horse or by wheelchair. There are many reasons for a modern person to undertake the St. James way: religious, spiritual, cultural, touristic or sportive.

I walked for over 2500 km asking to myself why nowadays modern pilgrims choose to walk for a long time, often without any comforts, sometimes with a very bad weather and healthy problems.
In order to understand the real meaning of St. James path I realized that my personal story was the crux to tell this experience.
The steps became the key to get into myself; with this feeling I started to see the St. James experience on my own way. I was looking for an intime and deep approach: nature and symbols I found on the way became a metaphor of life and my vehicle to show the inner world.

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