Spain 1950s is a faithful portrait of that period in Spain, a contradictory space in which poverty and sadness lived alongside the cultural riches and the open mindedness of its peoples.
Renowned for his films, Carlos Saura (Huesca, 1932) has combined his work as a cinema director with his activity as a photographer. This exhibition brings together a selection of photographs he shot in Spain in the 1950s, and it constitutes a true photo album of the people and places he discovered during his travels through the country (Cuenca with its landscapes and its people; pig slaughtering in Cañete; bullfights with young bulls in La Zarzuela; Sanabria; Madrid and its dance halls; Castilla La Mancha; Valencia with its feasts and the Mediterranean; and Andalusia with its olive groves and whitewashed houses).
His images transport us to a seemingly distant past and practically unrecognizable places, depicting the poorest, saddest and most repressed face of Spain; but also show us a country rich in culture, inhabited by open, simple and hard-working people who are a reflection of the life and customs of the nation, of its festivities and its rites.
Carlos Saura, Vanished Spain
Festival PHotoESPAÑA
June 2nd to September 13, 2017
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte
Calle de Alcalá 34
Madrid
Spain
