“I was tired of the Spain that was shown by the State, an image facing foreigners. I found a country of very humble people, they had barely left their towns except to emigrate. People expected the Spain of ‘ The move’ but I went against the current.” With these words, Cristina García Rodero He has explained the reason that prompted him to carry out one of his most important jobs. A collection of snapshots that he collected in the book, “Hidden Spain”, which brought together 152 images, some mythical and recognized by everyone, which until August 18 will be exhibited in the Circle of Fine Arts from Madrid.
The exhibition focuses on that other country that existed and that the authorities did not want to show, but, on the other hand, it did. “I have always tried to photograph the mysterious, true and magical soul of popular Spain in all its passion, love, humor, tenderness, rage, pain, in all its truth; and the fullest and most intense moments of the lives of these characters, as simple as they are irresistible, with all their inner strength,” declared the artist. For his part, Valerio Rocco, director of the CBA, has highlighted the importance of these snapshots and has He stressed that without these photos “it is impossible to understand not only the history of photography in our country, but also our culture.”
Made in collaboration with the Juan March Foundation, the La Malagueta Cultural Center of the Provincial Council of Málaga and the IVAM Center Julio González, the photographer explained that while carrying out this work she felt like “a kamikaze” and acknowledged that she encountered ” a country of very humble people, they had barely left their towns except to emigrate. This journey began in 1973, when she received an artistic creation scholarship that helped her acquire her first camera, a 35 mm Asahi Pentax, and then, with it, she set out to tour the towns of Spain to document and preserve the memory. of its festivals, ceremonies, traditions and the way of life of its people. «I propose to carry out an anthological work on the customs of Spain, both in its openness and progress, and in its concealment and tradition. QFor this I will use the most current and representative medium of my time: photographic expression.», explained García Rodero in the scholarship application report.
Cristina García Rodero, National Prize for Photography in 1996, Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 2005, Gold Medal for Merit at Work in 2014 and is an honorary doctor from the University of Castilla-La Mancha since 2018 and member from the Magnum agency, obtained enormous recognition with this work. She still admits today that it has been, of all the projects she has tackled, the most important she has done throughout her life. With the photos she later published, in 1989, a book that achieved enormous prestige and that at the time of its release received the Best Book of the Year Award at the Arles Photography Festival. Since that moment, this volume has become a source of inspiration for photographers, artists and photography lovers.
