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A few years ago, photographer Jessica Murray and I set up Al-liquindoi – a platform through which we organise photographic workshops in the Middle East and Central Asia. Last year, we carried out a project in Cairo with local photojournalists. Everyone spoke about the social and political unrest in Cairo but from different perspectives. It became apparent that it was only when you brought all those acocunts together, that you could get a clear view of what was going on. We thought that the crisis in Spain was similarly affecting many segments of society. So we came up with Crónica21 because we believe in the power of a collective voice. We thought it would be good to build an ever-growing, free, active and multidisciplinary online archive of the crisis.Olmo Calvo, En CrisisHow many projects have you archived so far?
We currently have about 150 projects in the archive, and will upload more over time. These are photographs, documentaries, articles, illustrations, literary and musical works as well as websites.
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Of course! In fact, we feed off of word of mouth. People write to us to show us their projects or to give us references. Regarding our criteria, we look for quality works of a reflective kind. Long-term works that have a critical, constructive view of the recession.

Yes, the archive is public and free. It serves as a showcase for the projects exhibited and their authors. We are not an agency or intermediaries of the material that Crónica21 possesses.That’s why we need to look for ways of financing "on the street" – so to speak. So far we have been working with donations but we also have a page on Verkami for crowdfunding. It can really help us boost our archive and to keep nourishing the project in the short term.
