Usually people who talk about the Camino de Santiago mention the many kilometers they have
travelled the countless encounters along the way and evenings spent in rustic guesthouses.
Willi Filz (b. 1962) travelled the two great northern Spanish Caminos between 2015 and 2022
after falling victim to a twist of fate. His enchanting landscape and nature photographs do not
show streams of pilgrims lodgings or cathedrals but instead bear direct testimony to the
experience of stillness and contemplation. The black and white photographs show motifs viewed
directly from the Camino drawn from moments of pause and contemplation. The photographer is
not concerned with any kind of spectacular narrative. The incidental is always there on our
journeys the insignificant always plays a part - and if I pay attention to it it whispers in
my ear many of the answers I have spent years searching for.
