Barcelona Photography Exhibitions

La Central Tèrmica de Sant Adrià de Besòs. Catalunya, 2014

If you are a photographer traveling to Barcelona, be sure to check out what photography exhibits might be in town during your stay. A simple Google search for “exposiciones de fotografía en Barcelona” turned up the KEDIN website [February, 2017 NOTE: site no longer active] with some 19 events listed with links. Some links will have an English option, with others you may have to put your Castellano or Catalan language skills to work.

To be sure, a few of the events you will find listed will be small, low-budget, local affairs, perhaps involving a photography contest or project presented by a high school or a neighborhood. At these events, the work can be variable, from very good to just so-so.

But, some (many!?) exhibits will be world class. If the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) or the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) has something going on, you can be assured that it will be very good (if not necessarily to your personal taste). Some private entities (like banks) will often put on exhibitions, too. A number of these big shows will be free, so that is an added bonus.

One place to definitely put on your photography itinerary is the Centre de la Imatge in the Palau de la Virreina (La Rambla 99, near the Liceu Metro

Centre de la Imatge. Barcelona, 2014

stop). They are dedicated to photography–well, to the image itself in its many forms, really–and they usually have more than one top notch exhibit going on.

The Centre is sponsored by the Ajuntament de Barcelona (the City) so it is free. Since you’ll likely be strolling along La Rambla sometime during your stay anyway, there is no reason to not go in. They are open noon to 8p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, including holidays. (Important motivational side point: there are public bathrooms there, too, on the ground floor.)

As of July, 2014, there were three photography exhibits in the Centre de la Imatge. A brief description of each will give you an idea as to the variety of work that is often presented.

—Gerald van der Kaap, a Dutch photographer and visual artist. His exhibit was multi-media with a short film and videos as well as photography (very slick color prints). It wasn’t really my cup o’ Gatorade being a bit too “conceptual” for me.

–An exhibit that was presented at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 called 25%. Catalonia at Venice. A critique of the current state of the economic system as the 25% refers to the unemployment rate in Spain. Eight, very different, unemployed individuals from Catalonia were profiled with photographic prints (how they live), along with a huge portrait of each and a video that told their personal story. Also presented in each case was an object of personal meaning each person brought from their own home as well as a significant art object borrowed from the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona that held personal meaning for each. Interesting and touching. You have to wonder about a system that is so centralized that a twitch by someone at the top can send millions (even the well-educated and well-prepared) to the soup lines.

—Martin Parr’s essay on “The Non-Conformists”. This was, for me, the highlight exhibition of the three…black and white prints from film of the English factory town of Hebden Bridge in the 1970s. The images document a lifestyle that has since disappeared as these old milltowns have become artsy-fartsy-fied and yuppified over the years. His eye for the moment and his sense of humor jump out at you time and again in his photographs…and the classic English faces…wow! Great stuff. (The term Non-Conformists, by the way, refers to the Protestant sects of the area.)

So, once in Barcelona, don’t spend all of your time making pictures–go see some as well!