“On Exodus and Wind,” awarded as Best Research Photobook at PHotoEspaña 2026

Juan Valbuena masterfully uses everyday objects, family albums, official documents and institutional archives to rescue a story as unknown as it is necessary from oblivion: the exile of thousands of people who, after losing the Civil War, were forced to seek asylum in the Maghreb (then a French colonial territory and now Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco). 

Taking part in the curating of the work alongside Valbuena was History professor José Miguel Santacreu Soler, with contributions also made by Rafael Sebastián Alcaraz; Bernabé López García, a professor and researcher on exile from Tunisia; Daniel Fernando Moñino Reyes, a professor of History and author of the book El exilio andaluz de 1939 en el norte de África: Argelia, Marruecos y Túnez (Andalusian Exiles of 1939 in North Africa: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), and Eliane Ortega Bernabéu, a researcher on exile and concentration camps in North Africa from 1939 to 1943, as well as acting as a liaison with the exiles’ descendants.

The book was produced as a result of an exhibition with the same name, an initiative of Casa Árabe and the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, along with the scientific curator José Miguel Santacreu Soler and visual curating by photographer Juan Valbuena. The show, which remained on display at the Madrid and Cordoba headquarters throughout 2024 and 2025, took us on a historical and emotional journey through the Spanish exile in North Africa, one of the least known episodes in the history of Spain.  

This work will remain open to the public at Espacio Fotolibros in the Serrería Belga (located at Calle de la Alameda, 48, Madrid) until June 28, as part of the Festival’s program, along with the other projects nominated for the award and others which are being honored.

This acknowledgment is great news for the work’s dissemination, which will help shed light on this little-known era in Spanish history and the personal experiences it led to.

Since 1998, the PHotoESPAÑA Festival has awarded the Prize for Best Photography Book of the Year in the categories of Research, Creation, Bibliophilia and First Publication, recognizing the fundamental role played by the publishing industry in the dissemination of this discipline. At its 2026 edition, the awards acknowledge the excellence of photography books published from March 1, 2025 through March 1, 2026.

In the Research category, eligible publications include those that recover archives of special significance or propose new interpretations or approaches to the work of great photography masters, as well as theoretical essays about the study of photography as a medium.

Further details about the book