During my many years on this oasis island of Ibiza, I've amassed a huge photograph library of rare black-and-white and colour high-quality images of the island's talented artists, special characters, landscapes, countryside, seascapes, and sunsets. There is also a unique selection of pictures focused on the traditional way of life of the gentle Ibiicanco folk of the land - wearing age-old traditional dress, tilling their precious land, and tendering their livestock, images which cannot be captured again because that golden era of this ancestral way of life have now disappeared, for good.
In late October 1982 I began a daily routine in which the mornings were devoted to office business duties and during the afternoons were dedicated to exploring the ever-enigmatic Ibizan countryside. I was accompanied in the latter with my two trusty Nikon cameras along with an assortment of top-quality Nikon lenses packed into my study Billingham canvas bag which sat next to me on the passenger seat of my Ford. My titanium Nikon F was loaded with Ilford Professional 100asa black-and-white negative film, and my Nikon F3 contained Kodachrome 25asa or 64asa or else Fujichrome Velvia 50asa colour deiapositive slide film.
I strayed far from the beaten track, venturing deep into the island's hinterland in search of unpedictable eye-catching scenes of the island's authentic rural way of life. I attended annual village fiestas to secure photographs of Ibiza's distinctive folk danncing (ball pagès), my favourite three annual fiestas scheduled to be held at Sant Vicente de sa Cala (5th April), Sant Joan de Labritja (24th June) and Sant Llorenç de Balàfia (10th August).
I was indeed fortunate to be able to captures the spectacular light of landscapes, seascapes and sunsets at specific times of day and of the year, and especially privileged to circulate calmly, almost unnoticed, amongst the rural folk as I recorded on film their treasured customs and folkways.
A special invitation came my way on Tuesday 15th January 1991 - to attend the annual pig-slaughtering (sa matançe des porc) feast at Can Mestre, Sant Antoni de Portmany. This involved mingling with a deeply rooted Ibicenco family from dawn to dusk and beyond, celebrating the annual ceremony that would yield two emmblematic delicacies: sobrassada (paprika cured sauage) and botifarra (blood sausage, like black pudding) - vital winter sustenance which would feed the family throghout the long months ahead.
At the turn of the millennium I invested in a Nikon SF-200 Auto Slide Feeder diapositive slide and negative film scanner and set about choosing and carefully scanning a wide variety of rare and unique images, black-and-white and colour, with a view to making a final selection for a dual-language (English / Spanish) picture book.
In this section of our website there are nine sub-sectons, each containing numbered photographic images, Eivissa Pagesés (Ibicenco Countrywomen), Eivissa Pagésos (Ibicenco Farmers), Eivissa Ball Pagès (Folk Dancing), Eivissa Campo (Countryside), Eivissa Mar (Sea and Coastline), Eivissa Es Vedrá (Iconic Rock), Eivissa Iglesisa (Rual Churches), Eivissa Posta de Sol (Sunsets), and Eivissa Ses Matançe des Porc (Pig-Slaughtering Ceremony). A tenth section, Eivissa Miscellabeous, features numbered photographic images which will be regularly updated, offering a continuous selection of rare and unigue photograph prints for sale.
With hindsight and in view of my then newfound passion for photography, it almost seems as if it was fate which brought me to this legendary island to witness and capture on film the final decades of a vanishing golden era.
In the mid-1990s I was busy scanning images one morning at my central Sant Antoni office, when our 'Anthropology' columnist, Kirk W Huffman, came in to send a fax and said, "Hardy, your problem is you store and hide away this important work when it should be out there for people to see." But this was prior to the worldwide web, and the time still wasn't right as most of the images were unpreared, and in any case, I was in no rush. The colour diapositive slides and black-and-white negative films weren't perishable and safely stored, and they would eventually come into their own in years to come. My images are now ready, I am happy to say, and the time has eventually arrived for them to be published online - 'out there for people to see and appreciate there images.'
I have chosen to a selection of three print sizes and a choice of four types of high-quality durable print papers, as laid out in the detailed individual price table below for each photograph.
I believe anyone who purchases an original 'Ibiza History Culture' high-quality photograph durable print is getting more than a picture of outstanding documentary and aesthetic importance but is also acquiring a unique investment of a photographic fine-art piece.
The preservation of History Culture is essential to human existence.
Gary Hardy
October 2024
Click on any image and it will automatically enlarge, with an arrow either side for you to continue browsing the photo archieve, moving forward or backward without having to close each individual picture.
SATIN PAPER 270 grams:
| Print Sizes: | 20 x 30 | 30 x 40 | 40 x 60 |
| Print Prices: | 100.00 € | 125.00 € | 175.00 € |
MATTE SMOOTH ULTRAMATE COTTON PAPER 320 grams:
| Print Sizes: | 20 x 30 | 30 x 40 | 40 x 60 |
| Print Prices: | 125.00 € | 150.00 € | 175.00 € |
BARYTA PRESTIGE ULTRAMATE COTTOM PAPER 340 grams:
| Print Sizes: | 20 x 30 | 30 x 40 | 40 x 60 |
| Print Prices: | 150.00 € | 175.00 € | 200.00 € |
GICLÈE PRINTING WITH EPSON ULTRACHROME PIGMENTED INKS: PAPERS: SATIN 270 grams: MATTE 320 grams: BARYTA 340 grams:
| Print Sizes: | 20 x 30 | 30 x 40 | 40 x 60 |
| Print Prices: | 175.00 € | 200.00 € | 225.00 € |
All photograph durable high-quality print prices are inclusive of shipping costs.
All Photographs © Gary Hardy
