Vivan los novios

Juan de la Cruz Megías
Murcia
1959

“Vivan Los Novios” meaning “Long live the bride and groom” is the second edition of the archives of over 2500 weddings I have photographed since 1979. Sometimes they make me feel like a priest, or a judge dealing with photographic evidence. I confess that I am an accomplice in all of this and an advocate of the conclusions I have come to with these images. I assure you and give faith to the fact that the testimonies shown here occurred in the light of day and not in any deep hidden part of Spain. 

These images speak of everyday events that happen, usually out in the open air of the country-side, not so far away from you, in places where photography has long been democratized and popularized, where the family album has survived modern times, where the protagonists consume images with almost every breath, without caring about the opinion of those that live hidden in the depths of the big cities.

In answer to the usual questions I get asked, I promise that I do not go the day before to hang things on the walls. There is no need. The selected images are genuine and were, in their day, handed in within wedding albums. If my photos seem flamboyant it is because they belong to a flamboyant world: us “murcianos” (people from Murcia, a province in the south-eastern area of Spain), are more North-African then European, where the atmospheric happiness creates an open, tolerant and fun character in the people. There is no need for me to invent anything. The key to understanding my way of telling stories with my camera must come from my ancestors, because I feel unable to separate photography from my own biography. 

-Juan de la Cruz Megías

Via 30y3