Larnaca, Cyprus. 2013

There were no hotels in Larnaca in April 2013, and the only room, very small but charming, overlooked the sea. It was a hot and humid day, and as night fell, as if by magic, an unforgettable lightning display unfolded. Since I didn’t have a tripod, I propped my camera on the balcony railing and took a few photos, some of which turned out well.

Stormy skies. End of summer. Vigo, 26.8.2026

The end of summer, with a sudden autumn. This morning, I drank my coffee while watching the rain fall outside the window. Heavenly music. There was lightning last night, but it seemed far away, not like the lightning in Larnaca, Cyprus.
In the distance, Vigo, the estuary, and the mussel farms under a dark front that passed but didn’t unleash its fury. The temperature is pleasant, 20-22°C, and it’s still bearable in shorts and a t-shirt. I’m getting the car ready for Saturday; 2,000 km lie ahead, the dreaded France, although I’ll try to avoid Paris—that route is unbearable.
Two months that have vanished in the blink of an eye; it seems like we arrived yesterday, and another year added to life. What I try to do is avoid Facebook; it seems like a page of news, illnesses, and deaths. Friends who are leaving us and others who are facing health challenges.
I’ll miss the horizon at sea, the waves, the Nordés wind, and “smart guy,” who’s already cut the bark off over a thousand eucalyptus trees to stop their growth. What a guy, I love him, he’s quite a character.
The ligaments in my left foot are still swollen even though the physiotherapist is working on them well. All because of the sidewalks made with cobblestones, the best place to twist your ankles.

Volcano of La Palma from Todoque spot. November 2021.

These were the first images that would go viral and occupy hours of airtime, without anyone knowing the tragedy that was about to unfold for hundreds of families. Ambulances picked up sick or disabled people, Civil Guard officers with megaphones urged people to evacuate their homes immediately, and they patrolled the streets to evacuate the area, house by house. The afternoon siesta was abruptly shattered. When it was finally possible to enter some places with permits to collect essential items, the scenes inside the homes were of a desperate flight, with no thought given to what was being left behind. The lava flowed down the valley with such speed, due to the steep slope, that it reached the first houses and buried them. The neighbors wept as they watched the images on television.

Footsteps on the ash of the volcano in La Palma. November 2021.

Footsteps on the ash of the volcano in La Palma. November 2021.La Palma. Noviembre 2021.

A image of Berlín east in 1987

1980. Berlin, crossing the wall
Two different worlds divdided by a wall. In 1987 no visas to stay or live in Berli East, only just a day visa and for especial situations it should be arranged in the border or with an travel agency. A good choice to cross the wall for one day walk is get a ticket to visit the Pergamon museum exhibitions.
Still today after so many years, when I remember the times I crossed into the eastern part of Berlin the penetrating smell of coal and the layer of smoke that was created over the streets with the low atmospheric pressure of the freezing winters. It is an indelible image and smell.
Crossing the Berlin Wall was the dream of many people, especially from the eastern part and the press from West Berlin. The political commissars followed our steps: what you bought, what you photographed and, above all, who you talked to or had a coffee with a tasty apple strudel.
The clock of time in East Berlin seemed to have stopped forty or fifty years ago, and the contrast I encountered was brutal. Arriving at the station and passing through the border control transported us back in time to a black and white film: the way people dressed, the Trabant 601s that went from one side to the other, smoking like chimneys, or the Barkas B1000s. Without a doubt, the Trabant in its many versions was my favorite car, just as the trams gave the city, along with that strong smell of coal, a unique setting.
My visits to the Pergamon Museum, each time they brought a new collection, meant arriving early in the morning and spending the whole day there, since overnight and residence permits were almost impossible to obtain. When leaving East Berlin you had to leave all the money you had left; you couldn’t leave with a single cent, or you risked being accused of whatever they could think of.

The last time I saw Honecker was on May 1, 1989. I was covering that event with another French photographer from the Gamma agency, and getting the 300mm Tamron lens across the border was quite an odyssey to tell. On that occasion, the weekly A Nosa Terra gave us an accreditation letter, but several political commissars never left us until we were back across the wall.

Flecha II. 1984

The Flecha II, a speedboat with powerful engines, was seized by customs officials in the winter of 1984 off the coast near Cabo Silleiro, Pontevedra, with a shipment of contraband Winston cigarettes. The smugglers managed to escape by jumping onto the rocks in an area very difficult to navigate. 1984 © Delmi Álvarez. The last lights of the city were disappearing by the stern and also the seagulls that were already in retreat. The captain of the customs boat rested his right hand on the power controls of the engines. Joaquín was drinking Biodramina with coke and I encouraged myself to take several shots without flash of the sunset. On the radars there was hardly any movement except for the boats that were doing the 8 miles looking for sardines above all.

Image of a signal burned by a fire in Pontevedra province. 1984.

The fire is a business and a crime

1985-2026 © Delmi Alvarez

Spring 2026
Long-term documentary in progress

Prevarication, oligopoly, bribes, trials without culprits, rural depopulation, exhausted and poorly paid pilots, firefighters without contracts, outdated forestry plans, eucalyptus proliferation, pulp mills. Many people involved in the issue of wildfires remain silent and complicit. Millions of euros, families, jobs, futures, mortgages, and a long list of other things are at stake—things that shouldn’t be spoken of and that they prefer to keep quiet. They must remain silent, keep quiet, while the fire business has claimed lives, and others gamble with their own.

Caption: Cockpit view flying with the 43rd Wing of the Spanish Air Force. Flight in the seaplane with registration 431-01, a Canadair CL-215-1A10 (commonly known as the CL-215), from its base in Santiago de Compostela in the summer of 1984, fighting wildfires. It is currently in the Spanish Air Museum. Crew: Prominent Officers at Santiago Air Base (1980s) Although personnel changed every few weeks during the 1984 campaign, the pilots and officers who led the Canadair CL-215 detachments at Santiago de Compostela Airport during that period and the early 1990s included: Captain Pedro Álvarez de Sotomayor Seoane, Captain Jesús Cembrano Díaz, and Lieutenant Carlos Remírez de Esparza. This is the first version of this legendary family of amphibious aircraft, characterized by its use of piston engines (radial engines) instead of the turboprop engines found in more modern models like the CL-415. Credit Photo 1984 © Delmi Alvarez

The pilots of the Air Force’s Canadair CL-215 seaplane (“43 Group”) from the firefighting group based in Lavacolla started, one by one, the two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-83AM 18-cylinder radial piston engines, with a power of 2100 hp each, to load 5000 liters of water.
I fastened my seatbelt in the carrier behind the captain and adjusted my headphones, and they did the pre-flight check.
“Can you hear me?” the captain asked.
—Loud and clear, captain.
The sound of the two turboprops was music to our ears; all parameters, gauges, and navigation systems were working, as well as oil and fuel pressures.
The captain gave a thumbs-up to the ground attendant outside and requested permission from the tower to taxi and line up. Fires in the 70s and 80s weren’t as aggressive as they are now, but to be an air raider (slang for Canadair crews), you need very thorough and extensive training.
—Are there dangers?
—Many.

Follow the story of fires in the Northwest coast.

https://www.delmialvarez.com/burned-land-3