Benidorm is an old fishermen Mediterranean village located to the east of Spain and one of the most amazing and successful experiments in terms of sociology, urbanism and advertising in Spanish history. Two years ago, an experts’ committee proposed Benidorm to be considered as a candidate to be UNESCO World Heritage site. With a local population of 70.000 inhabitants, Benidorm population can be up to 8 million of visitors during the year. Benidorm skyline is the one with more skyscrapers per inhabitant of the world only after Manhattan. This is why is warmly called “Beniyork†or “Mediterranean Manhattanâ€. Its vertical model was created using the principles marked by Le Corbusier as the ones needed for a city to be considered as an ideal one, and Henri Lefebvre considered it as the most habitable city after the II World War. This project focuses on the relationship between Benidorm and their inhabitants and visitors, using vertical photography, on the same way an architect rotated a cigarettes packet to explain how a building occupies the same volume whether it’s built horizontally or vertically, This local legend points out the beginning of the vertical model in Benidorm and also it allows me to rotate my camera, combining the architecture of the city with its streets, leaving aside others elements commonly used to define the city: the beach and the drunkenness tourism, and focusing my vision into the daily life of this strange city over which everybody in Spain has an opinion, even if they have never been there before.
