Railway photography exhibition rolls into Malaga's María Zambrano station

A railway photography exhibition that captures bittersweet moments of farewells and arrivals and mysterious scenes at stations around the world has pulled into Malaga.

The exhibition Caminos de Hierro collects the best snapshots of the 31st edition of the photographic contest organised for years by the Spanish Railways Foundation, in which more than 36,000 photographers have participated to date.

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In Malaga there will be a selection of 59 original photographs and 112 in digital format of the 2,260 works submitted to the contest.

Images of all kinds of trains and scenes at stations around the world will be on display at Maria Zambrano station until the exhibition closes on 31 July.

Malaga photographers

The works of local creators will be on show. Two of them have been selected and have come from the cameras of Diego Fernandez and Maria Teresa Santos. Both are part of the Photographic Society of Malaga.

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'Slow train coming' is the image of Diego Fernandez, from Colmenar, which can be seen in the digital part of the exhibition. It was taken a few years ago in a stormy month of April in Riotinto, on the train that runs through the mining area.

It was raining heavily and Diego, who is one of those people who always carries his camera with him, took advantage of his trip inside the train to take pictures. The result is a composition of three images that merge into one. Slow train coming is titled after a song by Bob Dylan.

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The piece by María Teresa Santos, also selected for the digital exhibition is in black and white and at a slow speed, and not easy to find out where exactly it was taken. It is a Moscow station and the image was taken before the pandemic. Santos said she was "absorbed" by the simplicity of the platform and a person who had his head bowed as a train rushed past. "I was captivated by the combination. I thought about titling it The platform of time, but finally I thought that the image itself should tell its story, she added.

The Caminos de Hierro exhibition, part of the Adif Open Station Programme, seeks to promote railway stations as meeting and cultural spaces. Next stop: Murcia.