The Freelance Spain Showcase

Here you will find a selection of excerpts of previous work done by Freelance Spain journalists and photographers.

Looking for Dulcinea
by Janet Mendel

Four-hundred years after Don Quixote went looking for his ladyship, Dulcinea, in the town of El Toboso in La Mancha, I followed in his footsteps. While I never found “Princess Sweetie-pie”, I found a land rich in history, culture and natural beauty. Add to that Spain’s best cheese-Queso Manchego, many superb wines, and good and simple dishes such as shepherds’ stews. Oh yes, and sweets.
[MORE] Photos by J.D.Dallet

Back to the Future: Organic Wines Begin to Take the Prizes
by Janet Mendel

More and more wine connoisseurs are looking beyond quality and value when selecting wines. They are beginning to want wines that are organically produced from ecological vineyards. In 20 years, Spain’s organic wineries have grown from zero to more than 100, with every wine producing region represented. These wines-quite a few of which are available in the United States-carry labels that identify them as wines made from organically-grown grapes.
[MORE] Photos by J.D.Dallet

    How to be a Freelance
    by Nick Inman
Freelance writing and photography doesn't suit everyone and I would only recommend it if you feel you can't live any other way. Having a steady job has lots of advantages even if you have to put up with fixed working hours and a neurotic boss. To freelance successfully you will have to enjoy working by yourself from home and living on a widely fluctuating income. The job description of the average freelance calls for initiative, ideas, motivation, perseverance and luck. As well as being the creative force behind your mini-business you will need to be your own secretary, marketing expert and systems support technician when your computer crashes. If you are not a proactive problem solver there will be no one to save you.
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Heinz Hebeisen - Photographer

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     Heaven can wait
     by Robert Latona
Topping everybody's required reading list for the hectic year ahead should be a book called 1492 and All That. The only problem is that it hasn't quite been written yet, but when Spain finally does get round to producing a double-barreled send-up of its own appalling history and the equally appalling textbooks in which it has been perpetuated, it will doubtless have to start off something like this: "Queen Isabel married Fernando and got Columbus on his way across the ocean blue, and, after they chucked out the Jews, who were unpopular, and the Moors, who objected to being reconquered, they got the Spaniards who were left over to live together for awhile in the same country without killing each other; she was thus a good queen."
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     La Palma: All white on the night
     by Joe Cawley
Nobody fights dirty at La Palma’s talcum-powder battle. Joe Cawley, of The Sunday Times, saw the most fragrant Spanish fiesta
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      The Year of Gaudí
      by Sarah Andrews
Antonio Gaudí was so shabby-looking at the end of his life that when he was run over by a tram as he crossed a busy street in 1926 the taxi drivers who witnessed the accident wouldn’t even take the injured vagrant to a hospital. He died three days later, having spent the last year of his life living like a hermit inside his own studio.
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Marion Kaplan - Photographer

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      The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
      by David Baird
Should Clint Eastwood ever return to the parched Spanish landscapes where he made his name as the taciturn hero of spaghetti Westerns, he would find a real-life saga worthy of his attention. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly all have a place in recent events in Almería, for the cast includes a fearless lawman, a crusading journalist, and a band of desperadoes dangerous enough to make even Clint swallow his cheroot.
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