I recently spent a couple of weeks in Valencia, Spain, a charming city I have visited a number of times that always makes me feel relaxed and right at home. As the third-largest city in Spain, I haven’t yet visited the largest, Madrid, but I can confidently say I prefer Valencia to Barcelona. It has a laid-back, spontaneous vibe that’s hard to resist. Always a visual feast, the city is dotted with beautiful old architecture, winding streets, and some of the most impressive landmarks in Europe: the largest indoor central market and the largest outdoor city park, perfect for walking, relaxing, and enjoying the outdoors.

Valencia also boasts a few interesting museums, the museum of modern art (IVAM), another small modern art museum housed in a centuries old convent (El Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània), and the City of Arts and Sciences, which is a modern architectural marvel in itself. The best part is that nearly everything is always within walking distance when I am there. It’s never too crowded (as long as you avoid the old city center around the cathedral), and there are plenty of great Airbnb options to stay for a few weeks or longer. The supermarkets are top-notch and very reasonably priced. The city is clean and safe, the people are always friendly and approachable and the weather is almost nearly perfect. Honestly, it’s hard to ask for much more.

Typically, when I travel, I focus more on photography, but since I was in Valencia for a shorter time than usual, I decided to forgo my usual photo walks and simply enjoy the atmosphere. This time, I kept things more impromptu and did some casual street photography, snapping shots whenever something caught my eye. Most of the photos I captured were subjects that, to me, had potential as black-and-white images, things that played with light and shadows or had striking symmetry and/or contrast.

Below are a handful of vertical orientation images I captured during my time there. Everything was shot in RAW on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and processed in Photoshop.