Culture

Author and photographer: Sou Harris At the age of 10, Ali Useni, who prefers to be called Alex, was forced out of school so as not to “infect” his classmates. He had told his aunt, who he lived with after his mother passed, that when he grew up, he would like to marry a man. This confession would be the beginning of years of physical and psychological abuse that pushed him to embark on a dangerous journey from Cameroon, across North Africa and the Mediterranean, until arriving in Spain in search of safety. Cameroon is one of 64 countries that, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), criminalises homosexuality – almost half of these countries are in Africa. Prison sentences can vary between six months and five years for those who have consensual sexual relations with another person of the same sex. While Sudan repealed...

A chain of around 400 people surrounded the Rayo Stadium this Saturday to defend its survival in the barrio of Vallecas, and against building a new, bigger stadium outside the neighbourhood. Fans told the press that the club doesn’t need "a stadium of 40,000 people" and that, if necessary, it’s possible to remodel it to adapt it to current times without changing its location.

Las Kory Warmys, mujeres de oro en idioma Aymara, es un elenco de teatro boliviano conformado principalmente por mujeres comerciantes, vendedoras ambulantes y artesanas en La Paz y en El Alto que combinan sus jornadas laborales con el teatro, una profesión relativamente reciente que las apasiona bajo la dirección de la actriz y directora Érika Andia.

Following the train tracks (and veering off them every now and again) reveals the industrial past of the Jarama Valley: current and disused railway infrastructure, an old fly-tipping zone (with a warning sign in pesetas!), bunkers and abandoned agricultural buildings. Dipping into Arganda, you can also visit a tiny barrio of only casas bajas with traditional door curtains and, of course, lots of storks.

La idea de este proyecto, que se llama Lo Que Atesoro, era animar a nuestros no-nativos digitales más establecidos a adentrarse en el mundo de la fotografía. Quería que captáran sus vidas de la misma manera que lo hacen las generaciones más jóvenes, para que nosotros también podamos entender las cosas que ellos atesóran.

All photos in this exhibition were taken by the children using eight second-hand pocket digital cameras from around the turn of the millennium. For many of the children, aged between six and 13 years old, this was the first time they had ever seen one of these cameras, which brought an extra level of magic to the whole photography process.

After the hottest summer on record, the skies are filled with constant lightning and the fiesta grounds are intermittently flooding. But nothing can stop the smoke machines pluming into the neon lights of the fairground rides, or the pounding of reggaeton while families and friends bump each other on the dodgem dance floor. Here's a snapshot of the summer fiestas in Villa de Vallekas.

After months of drought, Madrid's skies chose the weekend of the San Isidro festival to be the day it poured down over the city. Despite momentarily rushing to shelter in food tents and under pine trees, or even under picnic blankets with complete strangers, nothing could stop the Fiestas San Isidro, as you can see in these photos!

Each year, the barrio of Lavapiés selects a few young girls between ages six and 15 to sit on the makeshift but highly decorated altars surround the popular church of San Lorenzo.

"My abuelo opened this place 90 years ago, before the Spanish Civil War. During the war, people used to come here to collect their rations of flour and my abuelo would have to sign their rations cards.

"This building was completed in 1970, that's around when my father moved his workshop in," explains Alberto Crespo Gutiérrez, who owns a small wicker workshop in Villa de Vallecas.

The creators of the grand and ornate red-brick buildings you can find all around Madrid are the same architects, builders and brick merchants who built the pretty little casas bajas in the barrios of Tetuán, Vallecas and Carabanchel. Look closely at Las Ventas bullring, one of Madrid's most famous examples of Moorish Revival architecture, and find the same intricate brickwork decorating little houses all around Madrid.

Welcome to La Model Prison, built 117 years ago on the then-outskirts of Barcelona. The city has expanded around it and Barcelona Sants Station, where the train from Madrid pulls in, is right in front. Inside, however, the prison remains exactly as it was the day inmates were relocated, just four years ago.