Basque photographer Diego Orlando, awarded at the International Photography Awards 2018 as "Professional Photographer of the Year" in the Books and Fine Art categories for his series "La mirada de Goya", reveals in this interview how Girona transformed his artistic life. After leaving Venezuela and settling in Catalonia, he found in this city the ideal environment to recreate the universe of the Aragonese painter.

Orlando explains his choice of Girona to recreate Goya: "I believe that the light in Girona fits better than that of Aragon for what I wanted to do". The faces of local people—"people with a very austere, very hard appearance"—and the availability of Neus Borrell's "fabulous" collection of period costumes in Torroella de Fluvià, allowed him to evoke Goya's environments. The photographer establishes a parallel between his own exile and that of the painter: "It is very hard when you live in a country and have no other option but to leave... I find a certain parallel with this dark world of Goya". At 50, he decided to reinvent himself as a photographer, something he considers "very complicated" but possible thanks to Girona, whose "closed" atmosphere and "complicated" climate helped him focus. He challenges the European perception of age: "I traveled to New York and saw people over 70 succeeding in all kinds of things. While in Europe it seems that at 50 we are finished. And we are not. It is now when we can contribute the most".