In the early afternoon they announced the National Photography Award 2021. This time it was for the Catalan photojournalist Pilar Aymerich, a photographer focused on social reality in the late Franco era.
The prize, endowed with € 30,000, has been for one of the most committed photographers on the national scene. Pilar Aymerich, aged 78, has received at the bottom of the barrel an award that many demanded for her, very little known on the international scene.
Little by little his work is published on the networks, which allows us to discover a powerful work in black and white that will begin to be better known. The jury has awarded him the award for:
a career in the field of photography at street level, developed from the seventies, which raises pressing questions in the late-Franco social and political reality, which are still relevant today. A work that germinates from an ethical notion in which fragility is the starting point of a photographic narrative
The photography of Pilar Aymerich
We stand before a committed photographer who does not hesitate to work from within. You have to know what you are going to capture with your camera to understand what is happening. It is a perfect way to face the photographic fact from the knowledge.
Carries 50 years with the camera on his shoulder And from the beginning, ever since her father realized how curious she was, she hasn’t doubted for a moment that her mission was to tell the truth.
This work ethic has led him to work with the most important media, from ‘El País’ to ‘Cambio 16’ or the magazine ‘Fotogramas’.
It is openly feminist since he began to realize how the world worked. And that personal and original look allowed him to focus on the things that were not taken into account in the seventies. And therefore also stand out in the world of portraiture.
To further improve his curriculum, we must highlight his dedication to teaching at the Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia.
The jury has been formed on this occasion by: the presidency of the general director of Fine Arts, María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco Carrillo de Albornoz; and the vice-presidency of the deputy director general of State Museums, Mercedes Roldán Sánchez. The members of the jury have been: Ana Teresa Ortega Aznar, awarded in 2020; María Rosón Villena, researcher and teacher in the Department of Art History at the Complutense University of Madrid; Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña and director of La Fábrica; Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (Macba); Jorge Ribalta, artist, editor and curator; Rubén H. Bermúdez, photographer and filmmaker, and Mireia Sentís Casablancas, photographer and writer.