If you’re looking for pictures of the classic Valencia, you might find yourself disappointed by this set of random snapshots. I’ve lived in Valencia for nearly eighteen years now, and have taken thousands of photos of this uniquely picturesque city. But every day, I continue to spot little corners or unexpected moments which can’t resist shooting.
These photos wouldn’t exactly make great motifs for postcards of the city — unless you’re into really off-beat postcards. But they capture real moments in the city. Valencia seems to be changing faster than ever before, and it’s important to enshrine everyday points in time like these into the record.
Sometimes, I try to talk myself out of posting these photo dumps. I don’t have a particular point of view with these pictures, and can’t tie them to a larger narrative, so I wonder if they even need to be published. But then I imagine someone looking at them a hundred years from now.
It would be the same feeling I get when perusing old photos of Valencia, looking at trams running through the Plaza de la Virgen, or learning about the existence of a semi-underground flower market at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. These old-time pictures convey a sense of nostalgia, for sure, but they also provide knowledge which is vital to understand the history of the city.
One day, I’d love to go through the photos I took with my very first digital camera when we arrived in Valencia in 2008. That’s a long time ago, and I’m sure that the changes revealed in those pictures of the city would be drastic.
Valencia has become our home, which makes the changes more jarring. We often leave for weeks or months (or exactly 91 days) at a time, and when we return, the city has rearranged itself yet again. These photos come from one such moment of return, when I was seeing familiar streets with fresh eyes, and realizing that home doesn’t stay frozen just because I call it that.
From our Travel Blog.