Willi Filz

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.”