Photography by
Bjorn E Engstrom

Articles
The Dictatorship under Miguel Primo de Rivera 1923 - 1930
Am I awake? Am I dreaming? Am I mad? These are the words the Spanish King Alfonso XIII pronounced in the early hours of September 13th 1923 after receiving a telephone call from his Captain General in Barcelona, Miguel Primo de Rivera, informing him that an insurrection had taken place in Spain. A couple of days following the uprising a French journalist interviewed the King who explained with euphoria that he had now obtained godly powers to govern Spain. After a couple of weeks, however, these powers from heaven became somewhat stressful and he subsequently returned to the society garden parties and polo matches in Santander leaving the running of the country to his Dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera.....   >more
The Return to the Spanish Village
Impressions from a visit to the village of Deleitosa in Extremadura 58 years after the American photographer W. Eugene Smith published his photo essay of life in this remote village in a rural part of Spain.    >more
My Childhood's Fairyland
I was brought up, to a large extent, by my Grandparents in a comfortable and loving environment in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. My Grandparents, who were cousins, originated from separate farming communities in southern Sweden but moved to Stockholm in 1917 to find a new life together in, for them, a new world. However, they never forgot their roots and the lands of their youth were always portrayed to me as being dreams of excitement and wilderness...... >more
San Jiang county and the Dong minority people
Initially, the journey by means of public transport in a comfortable but basic coach from Nanning to San Jiang was filled with novel sights enriched by the passing views of small farming villages – made up of amber coloured brick dwellings – huddled together along the edges of the zigzag mountain ranges of Northern Guangxi in South China...... >more
The Spanish Road to Democracy
An analysis of the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain following the death of General Franco in 1975. >more
Francisco Franco – A Remarkable Man
Thirty years ago at the beginning of November 1975, Spain was at a political standstill. Their leader for almost forty years, Francisco Franco Bahamonde, was on his deathbed. People listened to the radio or watched the television for the latest medical bulletins about the old man´s struggle to stay alive. >more
In the Footsteps of Laurie Lee
“A howling dog, the gasping spasms of a donkey, the sharp cry of a cockerel”. These were the first simple sounds of dawn reaching the young English author, Laurie Lee, as he contemplated his first steps on Spanish soil from the safety of an old steamer in the port of Vigo in July 1935. With only a fiddle and a burning quest for adventure his dream was... >more
The Phantom of Guernica
Monday 26 April 1937 was market day in the little Basque provincial town of Guernica. Farmers, donkeys and oxen made their way slowly to the town centre as the first rays of sunlight swept away the lingering shadows of the night still hiding in the narrow alleys between the white houses. They were little aware of the events which were to unfold this fatal day. Events which would change their lives as well as history forever...... >more