(1951, Barcelona, Spain)

Isabel Muñoz Vilallonga es a Spanish photographer. She has been recognized with the National Photography Prize of Spain 2016 and with two World Press Photo. She has also been awarded in PhotoEspaña and distinguished with the Medal of Merit for Fine Arts. Currently based in Madrid.

At the age of twenty, he moved from Barcelona to Madrid and in 1979 he decided to make photography his profession by enrolling in the Photocentro school in Madrid. Its reference photographers were Ramón Mourelle and Eduardo Momeñe.

He started receiving commissions soon after, for press and publicity. And also for the cinema, with the help of Tote Trenas, who introduces her to the world of photography for cinema. At that time he made the photofix of movies like Sal gorda and Penumbra. To continue his learning process, in 1982 he went to New York. His obsession was to find a suitable support to reproduce the skin, so he continued his studies with Craig Stevens, Robert Steinberg and Neil Silkirk in Maine. He later returned to New York to study large format at the International Center of Photography (ICP).

In 1986 he returned to Madrid and made his first exhibition, Toques, which was exhibited at the French Institute. Between 1990 to 2007, he has dedicated himself to touring the world with the aim of trying to share his emotions; through dance, she works in Cuba, Burkina Fasso, Mali, Egypt, Turkey and with the ballet of Víctor Ullate.

His work has been seen in PHotoEspaña (1998, 2007, 2010 and 2012) and in institutions around the world, such as the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Virginia, USA, 1992), the Dansmuseet (Estocolomo, 2002) , the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Unión Fenosa (La Coruña, 2006), the Casa de América (Madrid, 2006), the INAH National Photo Library (Pachuca, Mexico, 2008), Canal de Isabel II (Madrid, 2010), Caixa Forum (Barcelona and Madrid, 2010), the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (2011) or the Musée du Quai Branly (Paris, 2014), among others.

He was awarded the World Press Photo award in 1999 (in the Art and Entertainment category) and 2004 (in the Portraits category), he was the Community of Madrid Photography Award in 2006 and the PHotoEspaña Award in 2009. He received the Medal for Merit of Fine Arts in 2009.

His work is part of collections such as that of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris) and the New Museum in New York, among others.

During a trip to Thailand, while running after a procession to take photos, he suffered an accident: a fall that caused the rupture of a vertebra. He had to go through the operating table and a long and hard recovery process. The rehabilitation lasted until November 2016 and made him realize how ephemeral life is.

Artistic career

In 1986, he held his first exhibition, “Toques”, which has been followed by many others in various cities around the world for more than twenty years. His work can be found at the European House of Photography (MEP) in Paris, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston or in private collections.

In 2016, he received the National Photography Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. The jury valued his professional career in which “he combines social commitment with the search for beauty, delving into topics such as the body, ritual or cultural diversity.” It also highlights “the uniqueness of its use of a traditional technique applied to a contemporary language”. Muñoz declared that “my interest has been the human being. Although in people there are dark areas, there is always a part of light, the human being cannot live without hope”.

Technique

His photographs, almost always in black and white, are a human study showing parts of the body, images of warriors, bullfighters or dancers, using a meticulous and artisanal development process. All the photographs are large format contacts, made by the artist directly from the negative, using the old platinum process. In this process, the artist must prepare the paper herself by applying, as if it were a painting, a platinum solution. Later the negatives, which must be the same size as the final photograph, are put in direct contact with the prepared paper, to be exposed to light under a large contact press. Once this process is finished, the images are developed and washed by hand in large trays.

Publications

Parade Nuptiale, 1992, Fata Morgana, con texto de Gérard Macé.
Fragments, 1994, Saint-Gervais.
En jambes, 1994, Azygos.
María Ilusión, 1995, Plume.
Rome Efemer, 1997, Gallimard.
Figures Sans Visages,1997, Fata Morgana, con texto de Gérard Macé.
Rome, l’invention du Barroque, 1997, Marva, con texto de Gérard Macé.
I corpi la pietra, 1997, Leonardo Arte.
Fuerte como un turco,1998 , Galaxia.
La trampa del baile, 2000, Photobolsillo.
Isabel Muñoz, 2004, Lunwerg.

Awards

Medalla de Oro en la Bienal de Alejandría, 1999.
2º premio de “The Arts Stories” en la 43ª Edición do World Press Photo por “Chines Martial Arts Training”
3º Premio “Portraits Stories” en la 48ª Edición do World Press Photo por “The Surma people of Etiopia”
Premio Nacional de Fotografía 2016, del Ministerio de Cultura de España.
Premio Optimista Comprometida con la Cultura, de la revista Anoche tuve un sueño.