In the 70s and 80s, the Tabernas desert near Almeria in Southern Spain became the Hollywood of Westerns. It was here that legendary filmmaker Sergio Leone made movies like “Once Upon a Time in the West”, “For a Fistful of Dollars”, “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, making the desert of Tabernas, with its landscapes, movies sets, and relatively low cost, a point of reference for many ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ that were filmed there in the 1970′s and 80′s.
In the 90s, filmmakers stopped making movies in Almeria mainly because the conditions were no longer affordable. The film sets were turned into fairgrounds or were abandoned, and the people who worked and lived around the cinema circuit, such as stuntmen and extras, dedicated themselves to doing Western performances to attract tourists.
 
In 2014 the dummy of the book, Dreaming Leone, received a Special Mention at Self Publish Riga and it has been shortlisted for the Fotobookfestival Kassel Dummy Award, the ViennaPhotoBook Festival. Published in November 2014 the book has shortlisted at PHE15 Best Photography Book of the Year Award, Athens Photo Festival 2015.
 
Alvaro was born in Madrid and has been living in Italy since 2004. He studied German Philology in the “UCM” of Madrid and “Otto Friedrich” of Bamberg (Germany) and Sociology in the “Università D’Annunzio” of Chieti (Italy). Alvaro’s work has been exhibited in festivals and galleries in Arles, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, London and New York and his clients and publications include L’Espresso, Newsweek, Playboy, Internazionale, Vanity Fair, New York Times, Das Magazin, El Periódico, Glamour, The Fader, Riders, Bulletin, Altair, NZZ, DLaRepubblica, IL Magazine, Lens (New York Times), British Journal of Photography, GUP.
He won the PhotoEspaña OjodePez Human Values Award, BJP’s International Photography Award and Viewbook Photostory Contest and finalist in the Voies Off Arles, Leica Oskar Barnack Award and Sony Award.