Documented exhibition "the sea in the hands" by jose benitez contreras
The Municipal Library presents 'The Sea in Our Hands', a documented exhibition about the Barbate tuna fishing technique, through the lens of Estepona native José Benítez Contreras.
The exhibition will be on display at the Municipal Library, located in the Padre Manuel Cultural Center, from March 30 to April 12, and can be visited from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., with free admission.
The Estepona City Council informs that the Municipal Library, located in the Padre Manuel Cultural Center, will present next Monday, March 30, 'The sea in our hands', a documented exhibition about the Barbate tuna fishing technique, through photographs taken by Estepona native José Benítez Contreras.
In the early 1990s, José Benítez Contreras was invited to embark on the Barbate tuna fishing operation, a millennia-old ritual that takes place every year off its coast between April and June. He documented the entire process of hauling in the tuna with his camera. Some of these photographs were published in May 2000 in the bilingual magazine LOOKOUT, and thirty years later, they are being exhibited for the first time in the María Zambrano Room of the Municipal Library in his hometown.
The exhibition, which will be on display until April 12 during the Library's regular hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., is organized into four display cases and connects this ancient tradition with the local fishing history. The first case presents the almadraba as a fishing system—its three-thousand-year history, from the Phoenicians to current European regulations—with a specific element that recalls Estepona had its own almadraba until the 1990s. The second focuses on the men: the effort, the preparation, the faces. The third documents the central moment of the fishing operation, the hauling in of the nets and the collection of the catch, with the most extraordinary images from the series. And the fourth and final case is dedicated entirely to Estepona: six historical postcards of the port and La Rada beach—circa 1960–1978—that document local artisanal fishing life before the transformation into a tourist destination.
“It was very exciting to see this up close. I wanted to capture it in a photograph. I want to share what I captured in a photograph with you,” the author states.
'The sea in our hands' is complemented by a selected bibliographic collection from the holdings of the Municipal Library, which includes reference works on traditional fishing, maritime ethnography and Mediterranean species, as well as the book 'Encounter with Estepona', by Manuel Sánchez Bracho, who was the photographer's teacher and Councillor for Culture of the City Council when, in 1985, the first book of local poetry, 'With Words', was published, in which José Benítez Contreras participated as a novice.
With this exhibition, the Municipal Library consolidates its position as a center of interest that combines documentary photography, historical postcards and bibliographic collection to bring the visitor closer to one of the oldest fishing practices in the Mediterranean: the almadraba