The artists nominated by
In its 25-year history, PHotoESPAÑA has overseen breakneck changes to society, asserting photography’s place throughout as an ideal medium with which to create. Our
festival has always been produced by and for society, giving photography an important spotlight. Surveying the history of this discipline, the festival has brought many
prominent artists to Spain. In line with this international perspective, we strive to be a bridge of sorts between European and Latin American photography.
PHotoESPAÑA joined the FUTURES platform when it began in 2018. So far, we have nominated 25 European and Latin American photographers residing in Spain, all of whom were at key junctures in their careers. Some have participated in the festival’s emerging photography programmes; some have been the finalists in our prizes; whilst others have followed our Master’s in Photography and Visual Projects.
For every edition, we choose photographers who have developed – or are developing – a project that resonates with society. The environment, immigration, technological advances and the economy are just some of the themes that concern our authors.
Ignacio Navas draws from everyday life to explore the political, social and personal structures that comprise us. His project is a critique on the capitalist system, and the
instances of micro-violence that define it.
With her Paul project, Cristina Galán suggests the subversion of identity and something sinister under the visually-polished surfaces of reality. Figures suspended in
time appear in an idealised but impersonal world, representing the clichéd spaces of consumer society.
A disturbing feeling also permeates Felipe Romero Beltrán’s Dialect project, which saw the artist recreate the everyday lives of a group of Moroccan youngsters, as they await a future beyond an immigrant centre in Seville.
In Como la casa mía Laura C. Vela accompanies Xirou, a Chinese immigrant woman, in her search for a way of being in the world. The work is both an exploration of the main character’s inner world and a significant photographic encounter between two women.
Finally, Lorena Morin reflects on family life through intimate images of her partner, herself and their children. Captured in shared domestic spaces, her photographic diary reflects 15 years of familial love and unbreakable bonds.
Cristina Galán (b.1992, Spain) is a visual artist working mainly with photography and video. Her work explores the subversion of identity and the appearance of the sinister beneath the visually polished surface of reality, reflecting on the search for individual identity through collective identity. Galán builds in each work a universe with its own symbols and codes where everything that is there is there to be seen. Galán's work has been exhibited in Festivals and art centres such as Festival F2, Dortmund, Germany / Photo Israel, tel Aviv, Israel / CEART (Art Center Tomás y Valiente), Madrid, Spain / ProyectArte 19, Sevilla, Spain / Athens Photo Festival, Athens, Greece / XVI Bienal internacional de fotografía de Córdoba, Spain / 2018 Muestra de Arte Joven, La Rioja, Spain. She was also selected in ViPhoto Fest, Vitoria, España / Encontros da imagen, Discovery Awards and Emergentes, Braga, Portugal / Fotonoche, Art Center Alcobendas (CAA), Madrid, España. In 2018 PAUL received the Silver Prize in Fine- Art-Portrait category in TIFA. Tokio, Japón.
Paul was also published in Pewen photography notebooks (publishing house Muga) #38 and in Revista VA! #4.
Felipe Romero Beltrán (B.1992. Bogotá, Colombia) is a Colombian photographer based in Madrid, Spain. In 2010, He earned a scholarship in Argentina and moved to Buenos Aires to study Photography. By that time, he had developed an interest in documentary photography and traveled many times abroad for his projects. Years later, in 2016, he moved to Madrid, Spain. He got a MFA degree in photography.
Felipe focuses on social issues, dealing with the tension that new narratives introduce in the field of documentary photography. At the same time, He is currently preparing a Phd dissertation on documentary photography at Complutense University of Madrid. His practice, characterized by its interest on social matters, is the result of long-term projects accompanied by extensive research on the subject.
Laura C. Vela’s work focuses on the everyday, the infinitely small, and the relationship human beings share with their surroundings. She perceives photography as a way of placing herself in the world and a means of communicating with others.
She published her first book, 'Vorhandenheit', in 2014, which was reissued in 2020. In 2016 she collaborated on 'Subculturcide', a book about Madrid during the 2010s. She was a selected artist at Plat(t)form 2018 (Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland) and in May 2019 she published her first photo book, 'Como la casa mía', with the publishing house Dalpine, Shortlisted for PhotoEspaña Best Book of the Year Award 2020. In July 2020 she edited and published 'Las simples cosas', a collective photo book. In 2022, she published 'Siempre van solos, los bichos', a transmedia project (book and web format). Since november 2020, she directed the book collection 'Esto es un cuerpo'.
Laura is a Superior Technician of Plastic Arts and Design in Photography (Arte 10 School, Madrid). Laura graduated in Philosophy (Universidad Complutense, Madrid) and she won the BlankPaper scholarship to study a Master’s in Development of Artistic Projects. She also has a Diploma in Chinese Studies (International Institute of International Studies, UCM, Madrid).
Born in Gran Canaria in 1973, living in Berlin.
Lorena studied fine art photography between 1992 and 1995 in Boston. Sometime later she went to Barcelona to study filmmaking but moved back to the island after one year in film school. Immediately she joined the team of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, this work got her closer to another one of her passions, films. Being so close to many radical authors and watching their personal films made an impact on her approach to photography.
Mum of 5 children. Since 2008 she has obsessively photographed and filmed her loved ones and their lives together developing over the years a coherent photographic work of a special intensity, building an ongoing project she titled Je reste avec vous. Her images reflects her daily life and focus on her most immediate universe.
She is one of the photographers from collective Temps Zero, an international group of artists working with photographs, films and sound presenting exhibitions and performances around Europe.
She recently published a book with Brazo de Papel/ Fotonoviembre called Himmelskörper, result of the last two years observing her younger children are growing and how their lives unfold fully in the space called Home, reflecting the moment in which we live and what happens outside.
Presently, Lorena diversifies her time between her artist activity and her work as a film programmer and advisor.
