(Barcelona, 1921)
Joan Colom i Altemir is a Catalan photographer, one of the pioneers in the composition of photographic series.
He was born in 1921 in Barcelona. After studying accounting and working in a company, he started, self-taught, in the world of photography, entering in 1957 in the Photographic Association of Catalonia (AFC). Also the year 1960 participated in the creation of the artistic group “El Mussol”.
In 2002 he was awarded the National Photography Prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture of Spain, in 2003 with the Gold Medal for Cultural Merit granted by the City Council of Barcelona, in 2004 with the National Visual Arts Award and in 2006 with the Cross of San Jorge, granted these last two distinctions by the Generalitat of Catalonia.
In 1958 he began his activity by presenting a series of photographs to the IV International Photography Exhibition of Murcia, of which he received the seventh prize. That year he began to be interested in the existing reality in the Chinatown of Barcelona, the current Raval, becoming one of the main eyes of the existing reality.
In 1962 he traveled to Paris selected in a sample of the Spanish photography of the moment, next to, among others, Xavier Miserachs and Oriol Maspons and grouped in the movement called “Nova Vanguàrdia”, which would be the precursors of the composition in photographic series , and strongly inspired by the works of Francesc Catalá Roca, Cartier-Bresson or Man Ray.
Links
Some of his photos:
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