MAP6 photographer Paul Walsh has been working with Another Place Press to publish his new book Walking with Strangers. The book is about his three month walk across France and Spain along the network of pilgrimage routes, capturing the people and landscapes he encountered. The book is available as both a standard or special edition with print signed by the artist. You can purchase your copy here.
“I set out across the network of walking trails through France and Spain to experience the increasingly popular phenomenon of long-distance pilgrimage. I walked continuously for three months, beginning at the town of Le Puy-en-Velay in southern France, and ending 1700 kilometres later at the town of Muxía on the west coast of Spain.
Along the way I made many transient friendships with other pilgrims. Although some were walking for religious purposes or the physical challenge, most 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 travelling 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, drawing them together and giving them a common goal. The surrounding landscape became a geographical space for self-reflection and change. The photographs I made during those three months not only depict the people and landscapes that I encountered but also convey the transformations that were taking place within me as I walked.”