For those interested in Spanish literature, photography and cinema (not to mention Madrid's famous Rastro), a new edition of Ramon Gomez de la Serna's classic novel _El Rastro_, with photographs by celebrated movie director Carlos Saura has recently been published,
(more info) .
I picked it up when I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago and it is a great volume. Serna's writing is really complimented by Saura's masterful photography. He apparently took these photos at the Rastro in 1961, and they are only now being all published. I only knew Saura as a film director and am glad to see this other facet of his work. The book is visually very well-done, with excellent paper and the photographs are very well-reproduced. Definitely one of the treasures I brough home from this trip.
I also picked up the first volume of the the three part _Imagenes del Madrid antiguo_ (could not find any on-line info), which covers photographs of Madrid from the 1850s through 1939. I already owned the third volume (late 40s to the 60s) , and had been a little disappointed with both the quality of most of the photographs and the presentation (kinda boring actually). However, the first volume is much, much better, as it includes comments, essays and even poetry related to the photographs from historians, artists and assorted other figures (including Aznar and Gil). Much more interesting pictures (including churches and other buildings since lost) and a nice glimpse into the Madrid of the 19th and early 20th century, including images from the civil war.
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