In 1924, Ruth Matilda Anderson received a challenging assignment: spend a year photographing the north of the Iberian Peninsula. It is a challenge full of uncertainties and, for her, the uncertainty is similar to a small Leviathan, a monster that threatens chaos, so she prepares the journey thoroughly. Leviathan is also the name used by Ruth to baptize one of the heavy cameras that she brings to Galicia. The result will be one of the most intense and profound photographic works ever made about our country.
The ‘Ruth and the Leviathan’ walk runs through the streets of Compostela to get to know this personality and her stays in our city more closely. The full journey consists of 12 stops, starting in Praza de Fuenterrabía and ending in the oak grove of Santa Susana.
Project organised by the City Council of Santiago de Compostela, with the collaboration of The Hispanic Society of America.
About the photographs
The rights to the photographs available on this website belong to The Hispanic Society of America. These photographs are temporarily assigned by agreement to Maos Innovación Social, S. Coop. Galega, as the entity responsible for the design and development of the project.
About quotes
The quotes present in the stops of the tour were drawn mainly from the following sources:
- Anderson, Alfred: Letters and Diary, transcript included in Unha mirada de antano. Fotografías de Ruth Matilda Anderson en Galicia, Afundación-The Hispanic Society of America, 2009.
- Anderson, Ruth Matilda: Gallegan provinces of Spain. Pontevedra and La Coruña: New York, The Hispanic Society of America, 1939.
- Anderson, Ruth Matilda: Draft for her book and Notes on the Photographs, transcript included in Unha mirada de antano. Fotografías de Ruth Matilda Anderson en Galicia, Afundación-The Hispanic Society of America, 2009.
- Espinosa Fernández, Noemí: La fotografía en los fondos de la Hispanic Society of America: Ruth Matilda Anderson, Universidad de Castilla la Mancha, 2010. [PDF]
- Lenaghan, Patrick: Un retrato de España: Huntington, Sorolla y Zuloaga en la Hispanic Society of America, in Tesoros de la Hispanic Society of America. Visiones del Mundo Hispánico (pages 61-83), The Hispanic Society of America, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2017.
- Lenaghan, Patrick: Elaborando unha crónica de Galicia, in Unha mirada de antano. Fotografías de Ruth Matilda Anderson en Galicia, (pages 15-43), Afundación-The Hispanic Society of America, 2009.
The translation into Galician of the original English quotations is by Maos Innovación Social, S. Coop. Galega. The English translation of the walk is by Raquel Senra (Árbore Azul). The audios were recorded by A Casa do Rock.