The National Photography Award has been this year for Pilar Eymerich, a photographer unknown to many who has become a pleasant surprise. It has had a much more positive reception on the networks in the face of the controversy that arose last year, when the award went to a photographer also unknown to the general public.
Pilar Eymerich is a discovery. A photographer who has carried the camera on her shoulder since the 60s who has seen her career recognized at the age of 78. Committed and direct photography, without artifice and always close to the events and people she has portrayed over more than 50 years.
She is not a photographer recognized by the general public. But if you go into their website, their work is surprising. And the chronicle that Montserrat Roig wrote about her, a famous Catalan journalist and writer who fought with her on many fronts, is key to understanding her:
I would never have imagined that I do not know how to face a new character, if Pilar Eymerich is not close to me.
A woman full of personality who after 50 years of work has decided to deposit her archive in the National Archive of Catalonia, where it will be protected for future generations.
This award is a recognition of daily work, to the effort to tell stories with the conviction of wanting to change things and give a voice to those who do not have it. And above all to the professionalism and quality of its images.
The National Photography Award for Pilar Eymerich
There is very little information on the networks about the figure of Pilar Eymerich. Little by little we discover more about her, we find her photographs and we begin to recognize a look that is committed to her ideas.
He was born in Barcelona in 1943. And he had to live the gray period of the dictatorship in a school of nuns. When he left the classes, he discovered the world of theater that led him to London, a color revolution for someone who lived in Spain in those years.
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And that was the reason for getting hooked on photography, ** the possibility of stealing from time those experiences that were not yet possible in Spain **. When she decided to return, she was one of the few female photographers who worked. He collaborated with all the headers, but his triumphant entry into the professional world was the work he did with the aforementioned Montserrat Roig.
Between the two of them they began to document the world of Catalan culture and all those who began to arrive from exile during the 70s. In his photographs you can always see people in the street, demonstrating, enjoying themselves, crying and above all living. You will seldom see politicians in their shots.
The award, as he has confessed in different interviews, will help him buy a new camera.
The look of Pilar Eymerich
It is striking that the National Award does not yet appear on its website. You may not care or you just haven’t had the time. It does not seem that it follows the path of Colita, who rejected it.
Surely his work will now begin to be known to the general public. It is the perfect time for the National Archive of Catalonia to take advantage of the archive in its possession and make an exhibition to rediscover it.
The retrospective exhibition is a perfect occasion for recognition, but it is a custom that has been lost since the year it was awarded to Cristina de Middel. If I remember correctly, the last four winners have not had such joy …
Pilar Eymerich’s work is pure photojournalism. As she herself says, she fishes more than shoots. As Doisneau said … Wait for the image to happen very patiently. He arrived early, integrated into what was happening and did not stop shooting until the last protagonist left.
All that is being seen is black and white. But the color also dominates it. You only need to see the portraits of the Catalan intelligentsia or their tours of the architecture of Barcelona.
Within your web gallery there are only 7 themes: Barcelona, Transition, Feminism, Portraits, Theater, Havana and Cats. Three are in color. In the rest he bets on black and white close to classic journalism.
She is not an author of epic images taken at impossible angles. She is a professional who looks at reality in order to understand it according to her experiences and experiences. In the same way as Doisneau himself that she names, or other Spanish authors such as Paco Junquera, Vicente López Tofiño or Carlos de Andrés.
The meaning of the National Photography Award
You have to recognize a job well done. The effort of a lifetime has to be rewarded. Also if you dedicate yourself to creation, like photographers.
The National Award has been controversial in recent years. And it depends on your tastes, you can be enthusiastic or not. And if you try to generate a debate, giving your reasons, those related to that winner can launch their hordes without regard.
The virulent responses I received for my assessment of last year’s award to Ana Teresa Ortega Aznar still ring in my ears. Among many things, it hurt me especially that they called me macho or that I enjoyed criticizing older women … The problems of the lack of understanding in the networks. And talk without knowing the people …
But this year everyone seems to agree with the merits of Pilar Eymerich. Why? Simply because his work is direct and sincere and I deserve the award in recognition of a work that is the fruit of effort over many years.
Through his photographs you discover how we were. His journalistic work has become an anthropological work. We come from there and if we understand what we see, possibly we understand a little better how we are now.
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This is the power of Pilar Eymerich. And that is why he has received the 2021 National Photography Award. Many people may not like it. Surely many of us have been surprised. There will be those who launch political proclamations against her work for being linked to the feminist movement. But she is a witness to an era. His camera spoke then and we are left with the mission of interpreting those shots. What do you think of his work?
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The news
Pilar Eymerich and the true meaning of the National Photography Award
was originally published in
Engadget Photo
by Fernando Sánchez.