Madrid: Photo-essay - Places without people

Since Saturday, Madrid's streets have been emptied by the Covid-19 lockdown, as the city's services battle Europe's worst outbreak of the virus outside Italy. The atmosphere - save during the nightly 8pm applause - is eerie. Yet some urban places (peripheries, gap-sites, past infrastructure) are normally half-deserted. This gives them their character; it is part of their contribution to our urban experience; and perhaps the absence shapes them in turn...

In this Madrid-based photo-essay, Anina Baumgartner experiences places just as the people recede.

This story was shared by Anina Baumgartner, an Austrian student in Urban Studies who recently left Madrid for Vienna.