Halfway between a book of photographs and a graphic novel, its content is the distillation of over 25,000 photographs taken by Spottorno as he traveled the continent’s borders from Africa to the Arctic, crossing such diverse territories as the Sub-Saharan region of Gurugu, the Libyan coast, the Balkans and Belarus. The project led to two features articles for ‘El País Semanal’, the 2015 World Press Photo Prize and, eventually, this book, in which his images are transformed into a comic strip with a script adapted to the format. Published by Astiberri under the title La Grieta, existing versions in German, French and Italian will shortly be joined by an English edition.

The Atomium Prizes include seven awards with a total purse of 100,000 euros. In their inaugural edition, the work of Leonardo grantholder Carlos Spottorno was honored in the comic strip reporting category. “This astonishing humanitarian and artistic endeavor has revolutionized comic strip reporting,” said the committee granting the award, led by French author Jean-David Morvan.

The Leonardo Grant altered the author’s whole approach to this investigation of the migrant experience. Originally a commission from ‘El País Semanal’, which published the resulting article in 2013, the 2015 BBVA Foundation grant funded its extension to the eastern and northern frontiers of the European Union; an experience likewise written up for ‘El País Semanal’ as well as in the comic now distinguished in Brussels.

La grieta and its unsettling images were also the subject of an open-air exhibition in Bilbao in June-July 2017, with six large cubes showing 50 of the book’s 160 pages installed on the Evaristo Churruca quay between the Pedro Arrupe and Deusto bridges.

Carlos Spottorno talks of how the Leonardo Grant shaped the project: “Besides the evident economic help in covering expenses, the key thing was that it allowed us to devote time to research, design and post-production. There is nothing more valuable than time and it was time precisely – or the relative tranquility it brings – that we were able to buy, you might say, thanks to the BBVA Foundation program.”