Graciela Iturbide and Chema Conesa Win Top Prizes at PHotoEspaña

Written by Cesar Salugo Sunday, 27 June 2010 21:29

MADRID.- PHotoEspaña has announced in a press conference the names of the winners of PHotoEspaña 2010. The director of PHotoEspaña, Claude Bussac, has announced the awards at Matadero Madrid with the presence of the top winners, Graciela Iturbide and Chema Conesa and the rest of the winning photographers and sponsors of the awards. PHotoEspaña awards eight prizes valued in €32,000 euros which recognise the Festival’s best exhibitions, the year’s most outstanding publications and the professional path of Spanish and international photographers, both well-known and emerging.

PHotoEspaña Baume & Mercier Award 2010 has gone to the photographer Graciela Iturbide (Mexico City, 1942). The photographer receives this award as recognition of her more than 40 years of professional career, in which she has become a fundamental figure of contemporary photography. Her images, full of beauty and power, have captured people and places of the whole world where she has acceded in a way close to the Anthropology and always from the respect. Iturbide, through tools like the patience and the invisibility reveals her amazing realities that spread beyond the borders of her natal country.

The prize endowed with 12.000 € for purchasing of work, a exclusive trophy designed by Eduardo Arroyo and a watch of the brand Baume & Mercier, has been awarded before to the photographers Malick Sidibé, Martin Parr, Robert Frank, Hiroshi Sugimoto, William Klein, William Eggleston, Helena Almeida, Nan Goldin, Duane Michals, Chema Madoz, Luis Gonzalez Palma and Josef Koudelka in recognition of their important role in the international photographic panorama.

Bartolomé Ros Award to the best Spanish career in photography, endowed with 12.000 €, has gone to Chema Conesa. The jury made up Rosa Ros, person in charge of Bartolomé Ros's legacy; Isabel Muñoz, photographer andBartolomé Ros Award winner in 2009; Rafael Levenfeld, curator of exhibitions; Pilar Citoler, collector and member of the patronage of the National Museum Center of Art Reina Sofia; and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña, have wanted to recognize with this prize his photographic work, with special incident in the portrait; for his direction of the library PHotoBolsillo and for his work as graphical editor, both in press and in the publishing area.

The award granted by Bartolomé Ros's legacy, is endowed with 12.000 € and recognizes the contribution of a Spanish personality to the development of the photography in any of its fields, being like commissioner, author, historian, critic or through any other direct link with the photography. The winners in previous editions have been Isabel Muñoz, Ricard Terré, Javier Vallhonrat, Marta Gili, Alejandro Castellote, la librería Kowasa, Joan Fontcuberta, Alberto García-Alix, Juan Manuel Castro Prieto, Ramón Masats, Cristina García Rodero and Publio López Mondéjar.

The winner of Discoveries PHE Brugal Extra Viejo Award have been Vanessa Winship for the series Sweet Nothings. The Prize will allow her to expose her work individually in PHotoEspaña 2011. In this series of portraits Winship hoped the symbol of the uniform, the distance in repetition, and the austerity of the landscape would represent one thing. She also seeked the expressions of the girls faces to draw attention to the idea of these young girls poised at the moment “just before”. The moment where possibility lies, a time where the presentation of self, teeters into consciousness.

The jury of Discoveries (Descubrimientos) PHE Brugal Extra Viejo have been made up Francisco Carpio, critic and independent curator; Brett Rogers, the Photographer's Gallery director, from London; and Markus Hartmann, the director of international publications of Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern. In previous editions have received this prize Alejandra Laviada, Yann Gross, Harri Palviranta, Stanislas Guigui, Vesselina Nikolaeva, Comenius Röthlisberger, Pedro Álvarez, Tanit Plana, Sophie Dubosc, Juan de la Cruz Megías, Paula Luttringer and Matías Costa.

Casado Santapau Gallery wins Saab Off Festival Award with the exhibition Yesterday´s Sandwich 1969/70 by Boris Mikhailov. The prize endowed with 6.000 Euros for the adquisition of works, is granted by a jury of experts to one of the galleries of the Off Festival after valuing the approach and artistic value of the authors and the works , as well as the effort of the gallery for presenting a specific project for PHotoEspaña 2010. The jury have been made up Cristina Ros, Director of Es Baluard. Museu D'Art Moderno i Contemporani, from Palma De Mallorca; Michael Ángel García, critic and journalist; and Narcís Pujol, collector.

The jury have given special mention to Lillian Bassman & Paul Himmel, published by Kehrer Verlang, Germany; Portfolio by Robert Frank and Gerhard Steidl, published by Steidl, from Germany; and Past Imperfect by Deborah Turbeville, publishedby Steidl, Germany.

The Prize to the prominent Publishing house of the year has been given to Aperture Foundation in recognition by the publications Kamiatachi, by Eikoh Hosoe; Japanese Photobooks of the 60´s and 70´s, by Ivan Vartanian and Ryuichi Kaneko; Sally Mann: Proud Flesh, by Sally Mann (co-published with Gagosian Gallery); and Summer Nights, Walking, by Robert Adams (co-published with Yale University Art Gallery).

Lastly PHotoEspaña and OjodePez Magazine have awarded in 3rd edition of PHotoEspaña OjodePez Human Values Award to the Italian photographer Giuseppe Moccia for his series The Wednesday Kid. The winning work approaches the life of Christopher, a 18-year-old young boy with Down Syndrome. This circumstance positions him at the crossroads of two very different realities. On the one hand, he is able to communicate effectively both verbally and physically. But on the other hand he lacks some of the critical adaptive skills such as self-care, home living and functional academics, daily living skills needed to live, work and play in society. The story of Christopher talks about misunderstanding and vulnerability.

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