Joan Alvado

Located in the mountainous interior of Spain, the Serrania Celtibérica is the second most unpopulated area of Europe, after Nordic Lapland. The demographic indicators of this area are scary: with a territory of 65,835 km2 (13% of the total territory of Spain), the density of population is just 7.34 inhabitants/km2. In addition, the region has one of the highest aging rates in the EU, and the lowest birth rate. This condition of extreme depopulation has turned on red lights of alarm on several levels, while the area has become widely known in Spain as South Lapland: a vast territory comprised between the provinces of Soria, Burgos, Segovia, La Rioja, Teruel, Guadalara, Cuenca, Castelló and València.

But depopulation is a consequence of migratory flows intrinsically linked to a change of economic paradigm, where the abandonment of the primary sector as a productive model leaves large rural areas orphans of an economic engine. Therefore, as personal idea, I suggest that the phenomenon of depopulation is not reversible, given that there is no any alternative economic engine for the affected areas. Of course, this is not a problem affecting only a specific Spanish area, but rather a general phenomenon happening in developed countries. Therefore, we can come to glimpse a future in which larger and larger areas of the Earth will be totally or partially deprived of the presence of man. And this trend will generate scenarios where life in these parts of the Earth will not be as we know it today. 

Based on this subjective premise and taking South Lapland just as a starting geographical frame, "The Last Man on  on Earth" is a photographic essay in which I try to generate a reflection on our future. And I do it precisely recreating landscapes with a mood between futuristic and fantastic. Photographies have a certain atmosphere of science fiction, where a dominant way of life is extinguished on a planet. This series is about Nature, in its purest forms: forests, rivers, valleys, mountains ... and my intention is to open a reflection on what is our interaction with the natural environment we inhabit, and what is our responsibility towards it: both as individuals, and as a society.

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