Véronique Sutra, former editor at Magnum, moved to Barcelona a few months ago. She gives us a photographic tour of the city, focussing on two galleries in particular:
ValidFoto and TagoMago: these are two names to keep in mind when talking about photography galleries in Barcelona. Sure, two galleries might seem meager for a cultural, creative and cosmopolitan capital like Barcelona, but when one sees the sheer quality of their exhibitions, we cease to be distracted by the quantity.
The galleries have vastly different profiles. ValidFoto occupies a former industrial space near the city’s “underground” neighborhood, El Born. The vast white room is reminiscent of galleries in Chelsea. TagoMago, in the bourgeois bohème neighborhood of Gràcia, is the more intimate of the two, which nevertheless share a taste for certain styles of photography.
TagoMago features Catalan photographers like Manel Armengol and the Retaguardia collective (who use the early collodion process in their prints), but also the likes of Aline Smithson and the Chinese photographer Liu Bolin. Currently on display is the work of Armengol, a photojournalist since the 1970s whose style has radically evolved over the years. The gallery owners, no doubt aware of the growing market for Spanish photography, present his dream-like landscapes shot on tungsten film alongside a series of interior shots. The latter shows Armengol the photojournalist, the herbalist, the magician performing disturbing tricks with his fire-themed pictures. The parallel exhibitions allow the viewer to take full measure of this photographer and his journey.
ValidFoto exhibits almost exclusively Spanish photographers, from Colita to Paco Elvira, author of the celebrated blog Desde mi ventana (From my window), as well as promising young photographers like the sensitive and subtle Camino Laguillo, who recently exhibited a series of photos taken during stops at traffic lights. In these fleeting moments, Laguillo captured drivers in their cars like phantoms in the night, with lost and absent looks, partially obscured faces, all with remarkable finesse.
ValidFoto and TagoMago have a head start on the growing interest in—indeed, infatuation with—Spanish photography, which might otherwise be limited to the photography archives (the exhibition of Capa’s Valise mexicaine, Taro and “Chim” Seymour have met tremendous success at the Nation Art Museum of Catalonia). What’s more, Barcelona is surrounded by countryside where the economic crisis has taken a drastic toll.
Luckily, uncompromising institutions like PhotoEspana endure, and Paris isn’t all that far, with photo festivals that keep us in touch with what’s happening on the other side of the Pyrenees. One thing is clear: these Iberian photographers still have a lot to say.
Véronique Sutra
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