SPANISH PHOTOGRAPHERS AT TABACALERA

Estela de Castro’s Photographers is a work-in-progress, an ongoing project aimed at building up a comprehensive archive of Spanish artistic creation. The series currently comprises 57 portraits of leading photographers of several generations, ranging from the new wave of the 1950s and 60s to the heterogeneous mix of recent decades.

In its approach to the portrait genre, the series shuns both artifice and adornment. The strongly narrative photographs, remarkable for their use of light, seek not just to capture the great masters of photography but also to convey something of their character and experience. They highlight, for example, the serenity of Masats, Lobato and Colom, the shyness of Madoz, Momeñe and Trillo, the irreverence of García Alix, the depth of Pérez Siquier, the knowingness of Laguillo, the introspection of Catany and Pomés, the self-assurance of Fontcuberta, Forcano, Colita and Maspons, the fragility of García Rodero and Schommer and the roundness of Vallhonrat.

Estela de Castro (Madrid, 1978) was passionately interested in photography from a very early age. At 16, she started her training at the Look photography school, studying portraiture, art photography, fashion and advertising photography, and black-and-white laboratory techniques. She has held photography workshops with Óscar Molina, Javier Vallhonrat, Valentín Vallhonrat and Eduardo Momeñe. She worked as a photographer’s assistant at Ciclorama Estudios and her work has been published in the magazines Esquire and Forbes. She has also taken part in one-man-shows and group exhibitions at a number of venues, including the EFTI, the Museo Abierto in Mérida, the Talavera de la Reina School of Art and the Museo de la Ciudad de Carmona.