The festival will revolve around several thematic concepts that will address portraiture, Spanish photography from the twentieth century through to the present and collectionism, among others
Cristina de Middel joins the festival’s anniversary celebrations with her ‘Carte Blanche’ section, Players, which recaptures photography’s playful dimension and which will include, among others, works by Samuel Fosso, Jason Fulford, Miguel Calderón, Anna Hell, Zhao Renhui, Prue Stent and Hicham Benohoud
PHotoESPAÑA 2018 will offer the chance to revisit great portrait classics with exhibitions such as the one dedicated to Cecile Beaton
Spanish photography will have a space reserved for monographs of photographers such as Tomás de Acillona, Carmen Calvo, Carlos Cánovas, Montserrat Soto and Ricardo Cases
Collectionism will be another one of the festival’s main concepts with exhibitions such as The Soviet Century: Russian Photography in the Lafuente Archive, featuring images from the period dating between 1917 and 1960 and which act as essential documentation for understanding Russian history in the first half of the twentieth century
TransEurope launches with a programme of viewings and workshops funded by the programme Europe Creative in collaboration with the Finish Museum of Photography and Greece’s EuroMare
Trasatlántica, the International Photography and Visual Arts Forum, celebrates its tenth anniversary and will join forces with Casa América, Casa Árabe and Casa Asia
The XX anniversary of the festival was declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest in General State Budget Law on 27 June 2017
Download images PHotoESPAÑA 2018
PHotoESPAÑA 2018 will be held from 6 June to 26 August. The international photography and visual arts festival, held for the first time in 1998, is immersed in celebrating its twentieth anniversary. A celebration that began last year with the festival’s twentieth edition and that will extend to December 2018, when PHotoESPAÑA turns 20 years old. This landmark edition has been declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest due to its significance.
The festival will revolve around several programme centrepieces that will address, among others subjects, portraiture, the importance of photographic collectionism and Spanish photography from the twentieth century through to the present. TransEurope, a training programme to promote exchange between European photography and visual arts professionals, will also launch as part of PHotoESPAÑA. What’s more, the festival will celebrate the tenth anniversary of Trasatlántica, the photography and visual arts forum for promoting professional activities, creating working networks in the sphere of photography and visual arts and contributing to the international diffusion of photographic and visual arts exhibitions.
Cristina de Middel invites you to “play” with photographs in her ‘Carte Blanche’ section, Players
As with last year’s edition, the festival will include the ‘Carte Blanche’ section, presented on this occasion by the recent National Photography Award winner, Cristina de Middel.
The Alicante-born photographer will bring together, under the banner Players, a selection of photographers who have dared to explore the medium of photography and even to combine it with other disciplines such as film, painting and sculpture.
As she notes herself, “In order to leave behind veneration and the norms that have set the rhythm for the poor development of photography ever since its creation, playful transgression, ingenuity and a flirtation with freedom are required. Over recent years, with new generations and new schools, a new species seems to have emerged that transgresses norms without asserting anything, doing so only out of curiosity and to experiment in the laboratory in search of new materials. The selection of photographers and exhibitions put forward for PHotoESPAÑA 2018 aims to gather a number of games that photographers from every continent have experimented with, demonstrating, conversely, that it is not a Western trend but rather a true paradigm shift”.
A retrospective exhibition of the Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso will be included as part of this ‘Carte Blanche’, bringing together some of his most well known series such as African Spirits, Emperor of Africa, Allonzenfans, and Black Pope. Players will also feature a group exhibition, entitled Grand World Finale, in which six representatives from six continents “show us how games are able to place everything that is visible in a deserving place: the edge of the precipice”, according to the words of Cristina de Middel. The exhibition will count on the participation of Jason Fulford, Miguel Calderón, Anna Hell, Zhao Renhui, Prue Stent and Hicham Benohoud.
Portraiture, Spanish photography and collectionism at PHotoESPAÑA 2018
PHotoESPAÑA 2018 will revolve around different programme centrepieces. Portraits will be the main protagonists in the exhibition Myths, by the British photographer Cecil Beaton. The exhibition represents a journey through the history of twentieth century photography at the hands of a photographer who has photographed everyone from the likes of the British aristocracy to the glamour of fashion, classic Hollywood actors and great cultural and political icons.
PHotoESPAÑA will present an overview of Spanish photography through the work of photographers from different generations. From the photographic pictorialism of Tomás de Acillona, to the photographic interventions of the conceptual artist Carmen Calvo; a retrospective exhibition of the work of Carlos Cánovas spanning the period from the ‘80s through to the present day; Montserrat Soto’s most representative photographic series and the photographic reflections of Ricardo Cases on the Levante region of Spain.
For its XX anniversary, PHotoESPAÑA will also pay special attention to collectionism, presenting a new retrospective exhibition of Russian avant-garde photography, entitled The Soviet Century: Russian Photography in the Lafuente Archive. The exhibition, curated by Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego, will feature original works by Alexander Rodchenko and Giorgi Zelma, among others.
TransEurope, a new European photography and visual arts forum, launches
TransEurope was launched at the beginning of autumn as an initiative that promotes exchange, mobility and visibility among artists residing in Scandinavia, Eastern and Western Mediterranean and the Balkans through photography workshops, portfolio reviews, professional activities, group exhibitions and magazine editing. The project is funded by the programme Creative Europe and began in collaboration with the Finish Museum of Photography and Greece’s EuroMare.
Trasatlántica turns 10
PHotoESPAÑA 2018 will celebrate the tenth anniversary of Trasatlántica. The forum, created in 2008 by PHotoESPAÑA, has called upon Iberian-American photographers, researchers, critics and art curators to participate in a wide range of activities such as meetings, editing workshops, portfolio reviews, exhibitions and competitions. Over the course of ten years, it has organised activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela and Senegal.
At last year’s edition, viewings were held in Brazil, Morocco and the Philippines. To mark the ten-year anniversary of PHotoESPAÑA, it will join forces with Casa América, Casa Árabe and Casa Asia, whose headquarters will present a selection of the viewed works.
