The advertising language of Leopoldo Pomés achieves the National Photography | Culture
The photographer and publicist Leopoldo Pomés (Barcelona, 1931) has been awarded this Tuesday with the National Photography Prize 2018, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports and is endowed with 30,000 euros. The jury, which has chosen Pomés unanimously, has motivated its failure for having participated this "in the configuration of our collective imagination, introducing a new photographic language within advertising, with a renewed look at the society of its time", He has indicated the ministry's note.
The jury underlines Pomés "his contribution to the history of the image in Spain, with a career, linked in the beginning to the artistic vanguard of the group Dau al Set and Afal, and always committed to modernity, Leopoldo Pomés has participated in the configuration of our collective imagination, introducing a new photographic language within advertising, with a renewed look at the society of its time ".
Leopoldo Pomés acquired his first camera in 1946. Nine years later he burst into photography with his first exhibition, in the missing Galerías Layetanas in Barcelona. In 1961 he created, together with Karin Leiz, Pomés Studios and began to dedicate himself to film and advertising. Thus, in 1965 he was awarded at the Cannes Advertising Film Festival and six years later he won the Golden Lion of advertising cinema in Venice. In 1982, he participated in a large exhibition together with other Catalan photographers such as Catalá-Roca, Xavier Miserachs and Oriol Maspons.
In 1995 he exhibited his series Bulls, in ARCO and in the Andalusian Center of Photography. Two years later, a retrospective of his work was set up at the Palau de la Virreina in Barcelona. Afterwards, his photographs were seen in the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (2001). The Foto-Colectania Foundation exhibited its photographs taken in Barcelona in 1967. Finally, the exhibition Leopoldo Pomés. Flashback it was presented in 2015 on the Canal de Isabel II in Madrid.
He has also illustrated numerous books, such as The Windows, by Rilke (1957) and Gaudí, architecture of anticipation (1970) and made several films and videos, such as Baudelaire salad (1978), his first feature film; Barcelona, open city (1988), Josep Pla, traveler (1991) and Barcelona, a passion (1992).
The work of Pomés is part of the collections of the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM), the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, the Andalusian Center of Photography (Almería) and the Michael Hoppen Gallery of London, among others.
Between the prizes that have harvested in their race, they emphasize the Gold Medal to the Artistic Merit of the City council of Barcelona, the Prize of Plastic Arts of the Generalitat of Catalonia, in 1998, and the Cross of Sant Jordi (1999).
Román Fernández-Baca has acted as president of the jury, general director of Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage; and as vice president Begoña Torres, deputy general director of Promotion of Fine Arts. The jury was composed by Miguel González Navarro, director of the Agency of Contact Photography; Claudi Carreras Guillén, photography curator; Alicia Chillida Ameztoy, art historian and curator; Luz Bejarano Coca, art historian and cultural manager and Adolfo Autric Amarillo de Sancho, photography collector. The National Photography Prize began to be awarded in 1994. Last year, the distinguished one was Cristina de Middel.
