Magnum Photographer Shines a Mild on Spain’s Alienated Youth

A Magnum photographer has launched new work that focuses on younger folks dwelling within the peripheries of Spain — reflecting the alienation and uncertainty of the current period.

Agony within the Garden is the second monograph by Lúa Ribeira, created in her native nation of Spain between 2021 to 2023. Inspired by the potential of latest counter-culture, Ribeira has collaborated with younger folks in Madrid, Málaga, Granada and Almería to make photos that evoke a dystopian panorama suspended in time, one which seems each up to date and historical.

The clothes, gestures, and indicators of the folks in Ribeira’s images present affinities with and affect from on-line worlds and personas, echoing the extremes of hedonism and nihilism, all of which performs out within the backdrop of a quickly homogenising world.

Much of the inspiration behind her work comes from spiritual motifs (of her native Galicia, Spain), in addition to research into portray and cinema which all change into key reference factors inside the photos.

“I worked in the peripheries of southern Spanish cities where the arid landscapes helped ground a project that otherwise refuses a fixed geography,” Ribeira says. “The title, drawn from a biblical passage of worship, allowed me to evoke a blurry temporality. The intention was to connect a very contemporary reality, to more universal themes of suffering, betrayal, impending doom, and other human fears that recur throughout history.”

Through its dystopian and at occasions absurd environment, Agony within the Garden displays on a variety of worldwide socio-political points by way of the up to date lens of hedonistic counter-cultural actions.A visceral feeling of uncertainty permeates all through the work conjured by the decaying landscapes made on the perimeters of greenhouse cultivation in Almeria, whereas Ribeira’s inclusion of non secular motifs and imagery frequently nod in the direction of extra common themes and a suspension of temporality. Underpinning all of it is a sense of tragedy and rootlessness, countered solely by the energetic vibrancy of the youthful our bodies that parade by way of the images.

“Over the past decade, I’ve been inspired by the ways younger generations articulate themselves—through expressions, images and gestures that are increasingly global and acutely attuned to the alienation of our times,” explains Ribeira.

“In a world marked by material excess, digital acceleration, overlapping financial, migratory, and ecological crises, there are certain symbols and aesthetics that echo across geographies—expressing in different ways something about contemporary violence. These movements are often framed as subcultural by the media, photojournalism, and conventional documentary practices. Yet, it is precisely these frameworks that I seek to resist, choosing instead to read between the lines and accept more complex and fragile narratives.”

Agony within the Garden was proven as a part of Close Enough: New Perspectives from 12 Women Photographers of Magnum a touring exhibition curated by Charlotte Cotton (2021-2026), in addition to a solo show on the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid (2023).

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Image credit: Photographs by Lúa Ribeira / Magnum