"Rosebud". A mere seven letter word is enough to trigger the action in what has been considered the seventh art’s masterpiece for several decades. However, those who have watched the film will know that the key element in the narrative is not a word, but an OBJECT, an object in which a monster - drunk with power - had hidden his lost childhood, his last trace of humanity even. He dies, unable to share it - that’s where the drama lies: there’s no one around to listen to this object’s story.

Hollywood’s Golden Age knew a lot about this: objects turned into characters, actors playing a drama, and the screening of wishes -or even fear-, capable of telling a lot whilst saying nothing. The analogy with the book you are holding in your hands stops here, since what you are going to find in its pages is not the glamour from spotlights and film stars - the legends - but the one that originates from a reality which does not require the filter of a camera.

So what’s the secret? How can you capture the truth behind these objects-subjects? Certainly, a moment and a place are a good starting point, but they would not be of much use without a human genius behind the lens: someone capable of listening, empathising, and striping himself and everyone else around off in order to extract life from the objects as well as portray the subjects’ fetishism. That someone is Abel Valdenebro; that’s the spell found in these pictures; and that’s the worth of a book that will become a magical object, a generator of new stories.

Just like the objects from the cinematic Golden Age, this book has a particular aim: to tell you a story.

Keep your eyes wide open, otherwise you could miss it.

Foreword: Carlos Talamanca

Scriptwriter and Copywriter