Eugenio Forcano photographies exhibition in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid).

Eugenio Forcano photographies exhibition in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid).

Aug 1, 2014

art madrid

Sin futuro, Barrio de Santa Caterina, Barcelona, 1964
Sin futuro, Barrio de Santa Caterina, Barcelona, 1964

The work of an almost obsessive, tireless observer, as was Eugeni Forcano can be seen until 31 August at the Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. "CATCH LIFE. EUGENI FORCANO. PHOTOGRAPHS 1960-1974" is an exhibition of 150 photographs that portraits the chronicle our towns and cities. 
Pata que quiere tocar pierna, Banyoles, Girona, 1966
"Market Day", "Gypsy People", "Life on the Street", Eugeni Forcano conserves on his camera how life happens, everyday, with the talks under the doors, the buzzy markets, the squares, the neighborhood and corners... All these things are the fuel of his fascination with the common people and the main pillar of his photographs about the development of Catalonia, the contrast between the city and rural areas, the last years of the war and the "franquismo". 
 
Now the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando collect a good sample of the enormous work of the National Photography Prize 2012 "Catching life. Eugeni Forcano. Photographs 1960-1974 ". The selection of 150 photographs is done by the curator Daniel Giralt-Miracle, "highlights the work of which I think he is most proud because on one hand is the one that allowed him to devote himself to photography and on the other it is the brooch with which decided to close their career. "
 
Exaltación franquista, catedral, Barcelona, 1962
The exhibition includes the "Experimental Photography" section, with images taken between 1980 and 1995, when it was proposed to investigate the possibilities of color photography, with influences of surrealism and abstraction. In addition, a selection of magazines, books about his work and the chapter dedicated to him in the documentary series "The Voice of the image" complete the journey through the work of one of the foremost chroniclers of Spain in the last years of the war.
Por bulerías, Canet de Mar, Barcelona, 1963
Self-taught, born in Barcelona in 1926 and raised in Canet de Mar, Forcano wanted to know the world and on his path he met dozens of anonymous people that appear in his photos. He took a place in the news-weekly "Destino", recommended by Verges and Nestor Luján. 
 
Together with his brother opened Forcano studies, dedicated to portraiture, illustration, fashion and advertising. In 2005 he was awarded the Gold Medal of Barcelona and starred in the major retrospective "Eugeni Forcano. Photographs, 1960-1996. "In 2012 he received the National Prize for Photography and the Creu de Sant Jordi from the Generalitat de Catalunya. 
 
Oración en el desierto, Hogares Mundet, Barcelona, 1968

In his photographs, said Andres Trapiello, "the most important is the heartbeat of all that still lives", and that his characters "you can hear they talking", as Josep Maria Espinas said and as the art critic and curator Rosario Martínez Rochina remarks in her texts.

 
Confidencias, catedral, Barcelona, 1966

 

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exhibitions

The CEART opens this Thursday, November 14th in the room A an exhibition dedicated to this master of photography, which will be open to the public until February 9th. The show includes one of the artist's latest projects, focused on the hard work carried out by the miners of Serra Pelada, an open gold mine in the heart of Brazil where employees daily risked their lives.

Immigration, poverty, marginal life, slave labour, man's relationship with the land, the use of natural resources... are issues that have always fascinated Salgado. From the beginning of his career as a photographer, his work has opted to give visibility to the most disadvantaged groups and to create with his images a vivid and impressive visual story without fakes. With a raw black and white, this author's work transits between photo-reportage and naturalistic photography.

And the idea that permeates all his work is human dignity. Salgado portrays employees, miners and gatherers from a purely humanistic approach that wants to value their integrity, their strength and their resilience.

“If you photograph a human, so that he is not represented in a noble way, there is no reason to take the picture. That is my way of seeing things.”

Salgado entered this discipline long after completing his studies in economics between Brazil and the United States, and a doctorate in statistics in France. But in 1973 his life took a turn, and he decided to start his career as a photographer. He achieved to work at the Gamma Agency and Magnum Photos for more than 15 years until in 1994 he founded his own agency “Amazonas Imagen”.

With the “Gold” project, the photographer portrays a harsh reality that takes place in the Serra Pelada mine, a name given to a totally devastated and anarchically excavated mining enclave, the world's largest open-pit gold mine, through which more than 50,000 people have passed. In the heat of the legends about the mysterious “El Dorado”, the enthusiasm for this precious metal led to the development of strenuous exploitation practices for the workers and to originate tales of grief and glory, of human victory and defeat between the soil, the tunnels and the cargo baskets.

The CEART exhibition brings together Salgado's full portfolio in his characteristical black and white and large-format photographs that leave no one indifferent.

 

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