After moving to Spain two years ago for love, and taking six months off to learn the language, Madrid-based portrait photographer James Rajotte finally sent an email to Elena Ayala, photo editor of El Pais Semanal. James liked the stories the magazine featured, and believed their photography style meshed well with his own. That same day, Elena invited James to meet and share his portfolio. Afterwords, she quickly offered him an assignment. James now works with them three to four times a month, but it was his latest EPS project that caught my attention: a story on the lives of Spanish veterans.
Now, this topic may not seem novel to Americans, as we’re used to reading about US veterans, PTSD, and the affects of war. However, this story was the first of its kind in Spain. The idea for the article was to find a diverse group of Spanish soldiers who’ve participated in wars over the past 25 years, and to investigate the affects these conflicts have had on them as they’ve returned home. James says,
This assignment was presented by Elena, who put me in contact with Jesus Rodríguez, a veteran staff reporter for EPS. Jesus was in the process of contacting possible subjects and gaining permission from the Ministry of Defense to interview and photograph them. I have a certain degree of loyalty to El País Semanal because they were my first client in Spain and I’ve become friends with many of the staff members, so I’m willing to work on anything they have in mind. This assignment was a controversial theme that had not yet been done in this manner in Spain, so I knew people would be talking about it and it was important.
James and Jesus worked on this assignment for about two months, altogether. The length of the assignment was mostly due to scheduling issues. Several times a subject would back out, or they would agree to an interview but not to be photographed. James explains,
There was definitely a degree of sensitivity and respect that the subjects deserved and we didn’t want to ask for too much from them. It turned out that they were all very willing to share their stories, no matter what their political ideology may have been, and were all very accommodating.
James learned a lot through the assignment, both about Spanish veterans and working in a new country,
Many of the subjects shared a unique perspective of American soldiers, because in many cases, American soldiers were the ones to respond with medical aid. It was interesting to find out that the Spanish soldiers got along well with American soldiers and vice versa and there was a mutual respect. There wasn’t any kind of resentment towards the Americans, as I had sort of expected, because it was our war that they went to fight.
Also, I have found, as I had expected, that there is a huge learning curve working in new country in a new language, and I learn a lot every time I start a new story. This can be things as simple as learning subject-specific vocabulary or as abstract as Spanish journalism ethics.
Watch a preview James filmed for the story.
View more of James’ photos on his Instagram.