PEREZ EVEN

A fundamental piece in the forging of photographic modernity and the professionalization of the medium in Spain, Carlos Pérez Siquier (1930-2021) stood out on the Spanish scene, first from postulates close to neorealism, and later as a pioneer of color photography. In both aspects, Pérez Siquier acted from a privileged border position, peripheral, and displayed a unique gaze, fully aware of his authorship despite having started from an intuitive conception of photography , more similar to that of an anonymous passer-by than to that of a professional portraitist.

If something characterizes and makes the photography of Carlos Pérez Siquier so valuable and interesting, this is, on the one hand, the subject that runs through it from beginning to end –the real world and close to the author–, and, on the other, the attentive gaze and singular with which the photographer poured it into images. The apparent contradiction that could be suggested by the drastic changes of theme or the sudden passage from black and white to color disappear when we carefully analyze his work and thus discover the solid coherence that runs through it, marked by innovation, the intelligence that discovers possibilities where apparently there were none and the passion for the medium. All this makes up one of the most powerful and important works of Spanish photography in recent decades .

Throughout his career, which earned him the National Photography Award in 2003 , Pérez Siquier shaped a photographic corpus that delves tangentially, but deeply and scathingly, into the debates of his time. Through his photographic series run the social periphery, the visual alterations that Franco's developmentalism caused in the environment, or the cultural shock produced by the massive arrival of foreign tourism in Spain, until the withdrawal, in the last stage of his life, towards areas more personal.

This book is a retrospective sample that collects the fundamental keys of Pérez Siquier's production: black and white; the sense of humor; his work at AFAL and his works in color .