Valentin Denyset
Archives (2011 - 2019)
© Valentin Denyset
Archives (2011 - 2019)
© Valentin Denyset

04

The road back

In 2024, I photographed the pilgrims of El Rocío along the roads of Andalusia and in the village where their brotherhoods gather. Walking, prayer, song and reunions bring several generations together around a shared history. Having explored solitude, I turn my attention to what belonging makes possible: choosing how to live can also mean returning, forming bonds and making room for others. How can a shared history become a personal choice?

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People walk through dust beside a flower-decorated cart drawn by cattle.
Oxen pulling a flower-decorated carriage beside women in colorful dresses.
A line of musicians plays flutes and drums on a sandy street.
An adult and a child, each carrying a drum, play flutes facing one another in front of flags.
Two people dance, surrounded by spectators in brightly coloured clothes.
A man raises an arm in a cloud of smoke on a square where adults and children stand.
Flower-decorated religious carriage moving through a crowd in evening light.
A rider seen from behind passes between a decorated cart and pedestrians in low sunlight.
People on foot and horseback move along a broad sandy street beside white buildings in low sunlight.
Backlit rider on horseback before a crowd in El Rocío.
A crowd surrounds an illuminated cart in front of a building at nightfall.
Rider looking over a crowd gathered at sunset.
Silhouetted riders at sunset beside a church.
People are lit by green and pink flares on a street at night.
Figures in long dresses amid colored smoke at night.
A woman and a man hold long decorated staffs before a group lit in pink and blue at night.
At night, a crowd raises phones towards an illuminated structure beside a large white building.

Next story05 — Inherited tides

The road back

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