RONDA
ANDALUSIA, SPAIN
IMAGE NUMBER 712b
Ronda is a city located about 100 km west of the city of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is about 35,000 . The Guadalevín River runs through the city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep, 100-plus-meter- deep El Tajo canyon upon which the city perches. The canyon is completely unexpected as the visitor approaches.
Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles spent many summers in Ronda as part-time residents of Ronda's old-town quarter called La Ciudad. Both wrote about Ronda's beauty and famous bullfighting traditions. Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the execution of Nationalist sympathizers early in the Spanish Civil War. The Republicans murder the Nationalists by throwing them from cliffs in an Andalusian village, and Hemingway allegedly based the account on killings that took place in Ronda at the cliffs of El Tajo. Orson Welles said he was inspired by his frequent trips to Spain and Ronda. After he died in 1985, his ashes were buried in a well on the rural property of his friend, retired bullfighter Antonio Ordoñez.
TECHNICAL NOTES
The image was taken with a tripod-mounted Phase One 645 Camera at ISO 100. Exposure of 1/500th of a second and an aperture of f7.1. 28 mm Schneider Kreuznach wide angle lens with leaf shutter. The image was captured on a Phase One IQ180 80 megapixel digital back.