Paul Walsh’s new photo book, shares his three month journey on foot across France and Spain, sharing the people he met and places encountered.
‘The path seemed to untether people, draw them together and give them a common goal. The surrounding landscape became a geographical space for self-reflection and change.’
I set out on foot across the network of trails through France and Spain to experience the increasingly popular phenomenon of long-distance pilgrimage. I walked for three months, beginning at the town of Le Puy en Velay in eastern France, and ending 1700km later at the town of Muxia on the west coast of Spain.
Along the way I made transient friendships with other pilgrims. Although some were walking for religious purposes or the physical challenge, most of those that I encountered were walking to overcome a major event that had happened to them, or to find something that was missing from their life.
Walking facilitated new relationships as we talked side by side. Sharing the experience of being in unfamiliar places and having to find our way brought about a unique connection with those I had only just met. The monotony of walking day after day, the physical discomfort and the sense of isolation were made more bearable when not alone. Daily rituals such as eating and finding a place to sleep took on another meaning; they became goals to be strived for and shared.
After months of walking with my belongings on my back I discovered that, through separation from all that is familiar, walking helped people to find liberty from their complex identities and social obligations back home. The path seemed to untether people, draw them together and give them a common goal. The surrounding landscape became a geographical space for self-reflection and when pilgrims reached their final destination, they could move on to the next phase of their life feeling changed.
The photographs I made during those three months not only depict the people and landscapes that I encountered, but also intended to convey the transformations that were taking place within me as I walked.
Paul Walsh
