Show Navigation

Tomàs Abella

  • Home
  • Portfolio
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area
  • Publications
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Video

Tomàs Abella

Search Results

179 images

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
x
Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
Next

Loading ()...

  • Although they did not have water or electricity, the ingenuity and resistance of their inhabitants converted the old barracks into the largest occupied house in Europe. Sant Andreu Barracks. Barcelona, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain018.jpg
  • Although they did not have water or electricity, the ingenuity and resistance of their inhabitants converted the old barracks into the largest occupied house in Europe. Sant Andreu Barracks. Barcelona, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain019.jpg
  • Although they did not have water or electricity, the ingenuity and resistance of their inhabitants converted the old barracks into the largest occupied house in Europe. Sant Andreu Barracks. Barcelona, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain017.jpg
  • In 2017, Barcelona’s most important neighbourhood organisations took a position in favour of touristic degrowth at the iconic Las Ramblas boulevard, a wide tree-lined avenue where eight in ten pedestrians are tourists.
    _MG_9846.jpg
  • Half of the tourists visiting Barcelona only spend a few hours in the city. Short trips, fast food: life is tailored to the comfort and the needs of a “global” market that is recognisable and “safe” for the tourists‒but forces the locals to change their habits.
    _MG_7707.jpg
  • The tourists’ ruthless intrusion in the daily routine of the locals is the order of the day. In tourist meccas like Barcelona, the city and its residents are seen as part of a giant theme park attraction where visitors are invited to take pictures and exhibit them as trophies.
    _MG_1105.jpg
  • There’s no time to lose in the jam-packed tourist schedule… from the plane or the cruise ship directly to the beach! The sun & beach business has replaced what has traditionally been the main economic activity of the La Barceloneta neighbourhood: artisanal fishing.
    _MG_2345.jpg
  • Graffiti on the sidewalk in the La Barceloneta neighbourhood.
    _MG_5608.jpg
  • At certain times of day, the La Boquería market‒situated in the heart of Las Ramblas‒is virtually impassable and locals have to adjust their schedules to avoid the most crowded hours.
    _MG_6545.jpg
  • In the quarters with the most tourist pressure public transport often collapses, creating ideal working conditions for pickpockets of different nationalities.
    _MG_4593.jpg
  • Many traditional fruit and vegetable vendors of the La Boquería market changed their business to focus on selling juices and fruit salads to tourists. Food prices are rising, and the locals are losing food supply points.
    _MG_2605.jpg
  • To make the “Barcelona brand” business model work, it is necessary to hyper-stimulate the tourists to live as many “unique experiences” as possible: monuments, gastronomy, entertainment, fun... The object-based civilisation has been replaced by an experience economy.
    _MG_2905.jpg
  • According to statistics of the Barcelona City Council, there are 9,938 legally registered tourist apartments in the city. In 2016, the holiday rental platform Airbnb displayed 9,786 unlicensed ads in Barcelona.
    _MG_5607.jpg
  • A mantero‒a street vendor selling (usually fake) commercial designer products to tourists‒fleeing from the police at the Barcelona port. An estimated 3,000 persons, mostly immigrants of sub-Saharan origin, survive by illegal street vending.
    _MG_1964.jpg
  • Hen party in the Basilica of the Sagrada Família. The “urban marketing” that has been promoting public institutions for decades by presenting Barcelona as a friendly, tolerant Mediterranean city, also attracts the tourist party and nightlife sector.
    _MG_1175.jpg
  • In a scene of chaos and permissiveness with the profitable activities of tourism, the city is turning into a showcase where tourists give free rein to their holiday dreams and expectations. French stag party in Las Ramblas.
    _MG_3026.jpg
  • The historic city centre is usually bustling with visitors, while most of the locals avoid the overcrowded streets. Barcelona’s neighbourhoods are gradually becoming isolated from each other, their social fabrics are weakening, and local businesses are disappearing.
    _MG_5654.jpg
  • Las Ramblas. The Ghotic neighbourhood
    _MG_6705.jpg
  • Frequent moves are on the rise in La Barceloneta, the popular and touristy old maritime quarter. Locals have to leave their flats because they cannot afford the rent increases that in many cases can amount to 400%.
    _MG_7988.jpg
  • Prince Jamal works as a live tourist attraction at and around Las Ramblas. In the picture, Jamal and his eccentric and noisy moped are trapped between riot police and a squatter’s demonstration.
    _MG_1481.jpg
  • Booze-binge tourism has filled the streets of the Ciutat Vella district with drunk, coarse young people with antisocial behaviours undermining social harmony in the neighbourhoods.
    _MG_1548.jpg
  • Low cost tourism makes it easier for young people of a modest income level to afford travelling to a first-rate tourist capital like Barcelona. La Barceloneta neighbourhood.
    _MG_1460.jpg
  • Pot full of beers. Ciutat Vella district.
    _MG_3996.jpg
  • Cheap flights, affordable tourist accommodations, 4.5 km of beach, easy access to alcohol at any time: low cost tourism is gaining ground in Barcelona.
    _MG_2559.jpg
  • The emergence of so-called “personal mobility vehicles” for touristic purposes contributes to raising the traffic stress level, and the overall tension in the public thoroughfare.
    _MG_9368.jpg
  • The increase in vehicle traffic due to touristic massification (coaches, rental cars, etc.) causes environmental pollution and leads to a growing number of cases of respiratory problems among the local population.
    _MG_5469.jpg
  • Barcelona has a population of 1,6 million inhabitants and receives 30 million tourists a year. Half of them spend only a few hours in the city.
    _MG_1075.jpg
  • Ferran street. The Gothic quarter
    _MG_0676.jpg
  • The Sagrada Família monument‒the icon of the city‒receives an average of 9 million visitors a year; that amounts to 25,000 tourists per day. Approximately the same number of residents are living in that neighbourhood.
    _MG_4444.jpg
  • In 2016, this young couple was evicted from their flat in the La Barceloneta neighbourhood for non-payment of rent. Since then they have been living on the streets.
    _MG_7865.jpg
  • Party animals: about 9,000 young US-American university students celebrate their Spring Break in Barcelona‒three days of massive binge with music and booze unlimited.
    _MG_1916.jpg
  • The difficulty in acquiring decent housing leads to an increased risk of social exclusion. Barcelona allocates only 2% of the housing stock to social housing, while the European average is 15%.
    _MG_9120.jpg
  • A group of cruise passengers trying to make their way through a parade in the Gothic Quarter. As a consequence of tourist pressure, the population of central neighbourhoods is decreasing and neighbourhood activities are on the decline, leading to a gradual process of cultural identity loss.
    _MG_1758.jpg
  • Property speculation‒also stimulated by very restrictive laws as to the rights of tenants‒is driving out the local population. In the picture, a group of activists manages to paralyse the eviction of 12 families from a building in Ciutat Vella.
    _MG_8121.jpg
  • In 2014, residents of the La Barceloneta neighbourhood started mobilising against the proliferation of tourist apartments: according to them, those establishments contribute to an expansion of un-civic behaviour and undermine peaceful co-existence.
    _MG_4769.jpg
  • In the last decades the city has steadily continued to grow, focussing a large part of its economy on the service sector which, in turn, is increasingly orientated towards the volatile and precarious job market imposed by the tourist sector.
    _MG_7596.jpg
  • Tourist protecting her ears from the blast of blunderbusses fired at a popular street festivity. Sant Jaume Square.
    _MG_4622.jpg
  • A man on his way to work making his way through an accumulation of delivery vehicles‒most in service of the tourist industry‒and a guided segway tour.
    _MG_0056.jpg
  • A simple stroll down the street turns into an authentic odyssey, a continuous and annoying obstacle course.
    _MG_2650.jpg
  • The touristic model of entertainment and consumption leads to an increasing privatisation of public space: Barcelona’s streets are being invaded by bar and restaurant terraces.
    _MG_7142.jpg
  • An activist defending the squatted social centre (CSO) “Banc Expropiat” is evicted and arrested by police. The building was originally owned by a bank rescued by public funds in 2012, and subsequently sold to a property speculator.
    _MG_8309.jpg
  • Clive Booth, of Great Britain, came to Barcelona in 1977. Fascinated by the spontaneity of the locals, the liveliness of the streets, and the city’s creativity, he decided to stay. Today he participates in an activist movement against the touristic massification in his adopted hometown.
    _MG_9304.jpg
  • Residents of La Barceloneta demonstrating in front of the Barcelona City Hall against the touristic massification and property speculation in their neighbourhood.
    _MG_2487.jpg
  • Western backpackers who pay for their travels by begging open an ethical debate in tourist destinations like Barcelona: asking for money on the streets becomes an entertainment for rich kids, a fun game to earn some beers, rather the last and desperate resort of those who have nothing to eat.
    _MG_3190.jpg
  • Fiesta in a tourist apartment in the Gràcia neighbourhood. Noise is replacing tranquillity, and acoustic contamination reaches every corner of the streets.
    _MG_4556.jpg
  • Among the most commonly mentioned complaints by the locals is the un-civic behaviour of some tourists. Tourists on rented bikes driving in the wrong direction.
    _MG_3516.jpg
  • Crossing roads, many locals position themselves in the first row to avoid being obstructed by the tourists. On their way to the First Communion celebration. Sagrada Família area.
    _MG_0410.jpg
  • In the city’s most crowded streets, the locals feel overwhelmed as they have to push their way through the steady flow of tourists, avoiding obstacles such as the tables and chairs of bar and restaurant terraces.
    _MG_4383-2.jpg
  • People with reduced mobility are more vulnerable. They experience even more anguish and powerlessness than other people when faced with the overcrowding of public space through mass tourism. Ferran street, Ciutat Vella district.
    _MG_8540.jpg
  • Sagrada Família area.
    _MG_3927.jpg
  • Cities are turned into spaces to obtain economic benefit from, into giant stages. In the picture, the stage is open to an example of pre-marriage photographic report tourism.
    _MG_3477.jpg
  • Ferran street. The Gothic neighbourhood
    _MG_0745.jpg
  • Tourists observing a parade in the Gothic Quarter. The Ciutat Vella district, the most touristic and gentrified of all of Barcelona, has lost 13,000 inhabitants‒11% of its population‒over the last eight years (2010-2017).
    _MG_0276.jpg
  • Due to the massive number of cruise ships arriving at the port of Barcelona, cruise ship tourism has become the city’s second largest source of contamination, second only to road traffic.
    _MG_2522.jpg
  • Sagrada Família area.
    _MG_1314.jpg
  • Casa Batlló. The fact that tourism is turning into the main engine of economic development undermines any possibility of urban sovereignty, making other productive models that are more respectful of life, society, and the environment, retreat into the far distance.
    _MG_5830.jpg
  • The interest in Barcelona has stimulated the appetite of real estate vulture funds, buying buildings with tenants included. After three years, when their contracts expire, these tenants are facing astronomical increases of their rent, or eviction. Residents are getting organised to fight against real estate mobbing.
    _MG_2685.jpg
  • The squatted social centre (CSO) “Can Vies” was partly demolished by the Barcelona City Council in 2014. After a week of riots and citizen protests, the neighbourhood’s residents managed to stop the demolition of the building and reconstructed the affected part.
    _MG_1035.jpg
  • The Spanish economic crisis of 2008, and the subsequent bursting of the real estate bubble, had an enormous impact on building workers, who lost their jobs by the thousands. A construction worker begging for food in one of Barcelona’s main shopping streets.
    _MG_3327.jpg
  • Italian tourists disguised as toreros playing rugby in the streets of the La Barceloneta neighbourhood. Let the party begin!
    _MG_4028.jpg
  • In the most touristic neighbourhoods, the locals are undergoing a process of alienation due to the deterioration of the environment: “gentle” towards the tourist and “hostile” towards the neighbour.
    _MG_3077.jpg
  • Tourist invading a bike lane to take a picture of the Sagrada Família.
    _MG_2545.jpg
  • Bike tour around the city.
    _MG_2851.jpg
  • The impact of touristic massification in the neighbourhoods drives the locals into solitude, isolation and distrust towards the new floating population, resulting in a loss of social relations and sense of belonging.
    _MG_9027.jpg
  • The difficulties to move around, and the alteration of the physical environment, lead to public health problems such as stress, crashes and accidents suffered by the locals.
    _MG_1686.jpg
  • Mobility devices (segways, scooters, rickshaws, bicycles, etc.) appearing on sidewalks and in pedestrian zones as a form of leisure transport further contribute to the citizens’ limitation of movement.
    _MG_1181.jpg
  • The massive visitor traffic inhibits the freedom of movement of the locals as the streets are flooded by tourists.
    _MG_4383.jpg
  • The monumentalisation of the historic city, along with the creation of a new neighbourhood‒the actual Gothic Quarter‒was a project of the local bourgeoisie of the mid-20th century, already back then targeted to attract tourists. The new urban tourism has an affinity for buildings with an antique appearance, whether original or not.
    _MG_5081.jpg
  • Las Ramblas. The Ghotic neighbourhood
    _MG_0762.jpg
  • British hen party. Entrance of a hotel in the Ciutat Vella district.
    _MG_2979.jpg
  • A tourist is upset by the sight of a homeless person. An estimated 3,500 homeless people are living on Barcelona’s streets.
    _MG_8936.jpg
  • As much as 4% of the city’s population suffer from nutritional deprivation, and 15% cannot afford to keep their homes at an adequate temperature. A resident of the Sagrada Família neighbourhood retrieves remnants of milk coffee from the multinational Starbuck’s that tourists throw in the garbage.
    _MG_7797.jpg
  • Tourism represents 16% of the city’s GDP. Nevertheless, for the majority of the population this “success” has not resulted in an improvement of living standards: one in five Barcelona residents lives below the poverty line, having annual incomes of less than €5,000 a year.
    _MG_5870.jpg
  • In the main thoroughfare of the La Barceloneta neighbourhood, the Passeig de Joan de Borbó promenade, restaurant signs occupy most of the sidewalk: public space is privatised in benefit of the tourist sector.
    _MG_3515.jpg
  • Traditional shops frequented and trusted by locals are replaced by shops and services for tourists, which are completely useless to the residents.
    _MG_7309.jpg
  • The Fiesta Mayor festivity of the popular Gràcia neighbourhood has been going through an accelerated massification process: in 2018, nearly 2.3 million people visited its streets during the seven days of the celebration.
    _MG_4770.jpg
  • The occupation of the public thoroughfare generated by mass tourism forces the locals to modify their everyday journeys, often putting their safety at risk.
    _MG_5771.jpg
  • A tourist coach leaving its passengers in the middle of a pedestrian zone, blocking the way of a mother and her baby. Sagrada Família area.
    _MG_2209.jpg
  • A resident of the Ciutat Vella district scolding a group of disrespectful tourists.
    _MG_0809.jpg
  • During the weekend with the highest number of cruise ship passengers in 2018, 65,000 persons arrived in or departed from the city on 16 different ships.
    _MG_1036.jpg
  • Since the 2015 Paris jihadist attacks, the police (Mossos d’Esquadra) patrol Barcelona’s main areas of tourist interest with machine guns and bulletproof vests, contributing to a growing sense of insecurity among the locals.
    _MG_5413.jpg
  • Tourists entering a tourist apartment in the Vila de Gràcia neighbourhood. While the rental market of holiday apartments through platforms like Airbnb is booming, one out of every three residents of the Barcelona area do not have access to decent housing.
    _MG_9078.jpg
  • The real estate sector’s greed to acquire buildings in order to establish hotels, hostels or tourist apartments has led to the displacement of residential housing areas, and to astronomical rent increases.
    _MG_1615.jpg
  • A local is startled by a group of passing tourists on a guided bike city tour.
    _MG_6892.jpg
  • According to a recent survey conducted by the Barcelona City Council (2018), citizens consider mass tourism the main problem of the city.
    _MG_1350.jpg
  • Gaudí Avenue. A couple recycling food from a garbage container where a fast food shop is throwing out their expired products.
    _MG_0458.jpg
  • Many locals have trouble getting sleep due to the‒mostly tourism-related‒nightlife noise level. This often leads to serious health problems as a consequence of noise related stress. Fiesta Mayor in the Gràcia neighbourhood
    _MG_1873.jpg
  • Touristification leads to substantial changes in neighbourhood environments and disrupts the residents’ daily routines (such as bringing their children to the nursery, going to the shop or going for a walk).
    _MG_9487.jpg
  • I love Barcelona.
    _MG_4790.jpg
  • Tourists contemplating a panoramic view of the city from Park Güell. In the foreground of the picture, one of Barcelona’s first squatted buildings, occupied in 1993 by the powerful movimiento social okupa, a social movement committed to pointing out the housing shortage in the city.
    _MG_4001.jpg
  • Police evicting nine families without resources (31 persons in total, including four minors) from a building where they had been squatting in the Hostafrancs neighbourhood since the beginning of 2017.
    _MG_3701.jpg
  • In Barcelona, housing has become a speculative business rather than a right. Since 2013, more than 14,841 evictions have been executed in the city. In 2017 alone, 85% of the 2,519 evictions carried out were due to non-payment of rent.
    _MG_3689.jpg
  • Las Ramblas.
    MG_1683--20.JPG
  • Viorel, who is stateless, lives in a shack in Viladecans. He has been in Spain for eight years and works for himself installing satellite dishes.
    exit_immigration_spain029.jpg
  • On February 9, 2004, more than one hundred anti-riot police proceeded to evacuate the site. In just a few hours, the mechanical arms of demolition machines knocked the buildings down.  Sant Andreu Barracks. Barcelona, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain024.jpg
  • On February 9, 2004, more than one hundred anti-riot police proceeded to evacuate the site. In just a few hours, the mechanical arms of demolition machines knocked the buildings down.  Sant Andreu Barracks. Barcelona, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain026.jpg
  • exit_immigration_spain057.jpg
  • Changing rooms at the Pozo Candín. Asturias, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain044.jpg
  • Nobody is illegal. Barcelona, Spain.
    exit_immigration_spain013.jpg
  • Barcelona
    _MG_6706.jpg
Next