Alejandra Seijas, the documentary filmmaker at El Rastro de Madrid: "New things don't have a soul, they're boring"

The clock is about to tick in the early hours of Sunday afternoon and El Rastro, Madrid's most famous flea market, is as always packed. A tumult gathers in front of stalls of second-hand clothes, books wrapped in the perfume of the years and other abandoned objects that seek their future in the home of a new buyer. Each piece of junk, whatever it is, and with a life of more than 24 hours, has a soul of its own, and the personality of the one who finds, buys or collects it. From this idea was born the Instagram account of Alejandra Seijas (Madrid, 45 years old), where she accumulates 136,000 followers. "Life has a lot of colors and El Rastro is a representation of life itself. It's multicolored. It's my source of inspiration," says the influencer from El Rastro.

The interview begins in the Plaza del General Vara del Rey, the epicentre of the Madrid flea market. Amid the impassive noise of the shoppers, Alejandra speaks excitedly. The five years she has been on social media – a job she combines with that of a photojournalist and social reporter for the media and companies – have not only helped her to accumulate a considerable number of followers, but also to earn her the title of "expert in Rastro". "You could make a career, yes. I think the many years of experience visualizing it, and feeling it, back it up." Not only because of their knowledge of the streets, the vendors or even the bartenders of the bars that adjoin the flea market; But because of the way he feels about it: "El Rastro means a lot of things. Signifies... Color, it means joy, it means hustle and bustle, it means... History, means... soul, means... Madrid, castizo, Castilla".

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This whole story begins more than four decades ago. This microcosm has been his source of inspiration for as long as he can remember. And every ride means a new experience for her. "I used to come with my father a lot because he lived next door. As a child I loved the animal area on Fray Ceferino Street. I bought a dog there. I called it Door, like The Doors. It turned out to be a bitch, and I changed the name to Dorinda." On his first walks, hand in hand with his father, he already felt that it was his special place in the world. "Sundays to me mean a trail. My love for this site has been going on for a long time. Walking alone, focusing on taking pictures, capturing people; That's what I like. And then, of course, around twelve o'clock you have a beer."

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"Illustrating, writing and living El Rastro is very easy because there are stories on every corner. This is El Rastro for me." One of the main challenges for any photojournalist is finding the perfect angle or model, but for Alejandra it's the easiest thing of all. "What I do on my Instagram I do for the love of art. I've been offered many collaborations, but I'm not a very good salesperson."

- Where do you put the goal?

- I just walk around and observe.

"I look at everything that catches my eye or what I like. I'm looking for color. After all, I'm one of those who thinks that El Rastro is very personal. It reflects one's personality. Maybe if someone else said it, then obviously they would have a different approach than me." But, for Seijas, the color of this place does not come by itself, the most important thing of all is its essence, which he looks for in every corner every weekend. "The objects here have a unique soul. That's why, in my networks and in my life in general, I don't make new things visible because they have neither soul nor personality."

Alejandra Seijas at the flea market in Madrid, last Sunday, November 5, 2023. Claudio Álvarez

And this is the idea behind his work: to make sustainability attractive as a lifestyle. "I walk into a mall and I'm overwhelmed. I see inert objects that have no life. I see everything dead." El Rastro de Madrid is a flea market that was born in 1740 around the city's slaughterhouse. After four centuries, it has never lost its essence: resurrecting abandoned objects. "It's present because people come from day to day to take a walk, to clear their heads, to forget, to entertain themselves or to celebrate. And it's the future because of the life we give back to things."

The walk continues through the most hidden streets of the crowded market. Seijas greets people non-stop. El Rastro has been essential in his social life, where he has met "great friends and people" whom he has a special appreciation for and with whom he shares his Sundays, and also his profession. "Writers like Andrés Trapiello, who knows stories about this fair that no one else knows." In 2019, the same journalist, who also found some notes by the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Ramón y Cajal, among the old books he collects every Sunday. Photographer Fernando Maquiera is another of El Rastro's most iconic. "He comes every Sunday at nine o'clock in the morning with his friends to look for old photographs. They look for their stories. And he records them in his videos on social media. They're the 'photo seekers,' and so are my friends."

These friendships are the subject of his book of photographs, Todo Rastro Madrid. "The book was an unexpected and very rewarding idea. It was an appreciation of my work that made me feel very good. I spoke out to talk to a publisher that only writes books from Madrid. They called me running, bought my idea. I would never have imagined that they would answer me," she recalls. A work that he built over the years, and with a lot of work. "I was really excited because they gave me total freedom. It was like, 'This is El Rastro for me.'"

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Of course, Seijas buys everything she needs here, both her clothes and the objects that decorate her home. She smiles shyly when asked about her favorite item. "I have several treasures from El Rastro. My house is decorated with many paintings. For me, they are like windows to other realities. The one I like the most I bought here. It has a white frame and beautiful scenery. It's like every morning I wake up in a beautiful valley."

The fact that the Madrid flea market has become an object of tourist attraction is not, for Seijas, an impediment to continue photographing it: "Everyone loves it. Despite having become a tourist attraction, it will always be a hotbed of creativity." But what is clear to him is that, for the time being, he is not going to stop capturing it. "My parents have returned to Galicia, to their roots. I love Galician nature, it recharges my batteries. But Madrid is my home and I have a lot of time here."