Dhe center of Spanish photography was once on the fringes. What may seem impossible becomes clear when you look at the map. There you will find the port city of Almeria in the far south of the Iberian Peninsula, hundreds of kilometers away from the cultural strongholds of Madrid and Barcelona. However, a photographic avant-garde was not concentrated in these cities almost 70 years ago, but in Andalusia, which was regarded as somewhat backwards, which had a lot to do with a man who was fascinated by photography and the expressive possibilities of the medium, but also loved his hometown, the he didn’t want to leave: Carlos Pérez Siquier (1930–2021).
Familiarized with the medium and technique by his father, an amateur photographer with his own darkroom in the attic, Pérez Siquier decided as a young man to study photography at a local art school, but in 1955 he chose a desk job and the safe one Employment at the Banco de Santander headquarters in Almeria. However, he did not put down his camera, which at the time was a 35mm model, and his interest in photography continued to be immense, as evidenced not least by the founding of his own photo magazine. Together with the like-minded José Maria Artero, Pérez Siquier started the Agrupación Fotográfica Almeriense, AFAL for short, in 1956, which not only published the magazine but also became a gathering place for innovative young Spanish photographers.
During the Franco dictatorship, which was suspicious of modernity, AFAL not only developed into a platform for finding out about technical innovations in photography, but also into a forum for discussing artistic aspects – and was therefore an important nucleus in the history of Spanish photography .
Photos by Carlos Perez Siquier
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A master of modern photography
It can be assumed that Pérez Siquier also sharpened the senses for his own work here and consciously distanced himself from his beginnings. While his now famous series “La Chanca”, which he started in 1956 in the district of the same name in Almeria, was still in black and white, with a great feeling for shadows and contours and following an almost documentary approach, he found it in 1962 with the change to Color photography a new look.
“Carlos Pérez Siquier was initially strongly influenced by neo-realism, for example by the films of Italian directors such as Federico Fellini, Vittorio de Sica or Roberto Rossellini,” says Carlos Martin, who together with Carlos Gollonet curated the “Pérez Siquier” exhibition, which is well worth seeing. which is now presenting one of Spain’s most important photographers to the German public at the Frankfurt Photographic Forum. He was only discovered with some delay in his home country, which certainly had something to do with the passage of time, but perhaps also with a personal decision by the photographer. He stayed true to his bank job until 1988 and only worked with the camera on the side. Among other things, he worked as a freelancer for the Ministry of Information and Tourism, which, however, did not expect series such as “La Chanca” that documented life on the fringes of society or the great “Informalismos”, reminiscent of abstract painting, but rather photographs that beauty and beach life in the region, which is becoming important for international tourism.
The works for Pérez Siquier’s impressive series “La Playa”, which was kept in a box for a long time, were also created during these forays, with their genuine, humorous view of the diverse figures on the Mediterranean beaches, not only the transformation of Spain in the post-Francoist years towards one consumer society, but also reveals the photographer’s increased interest in geometric shapes and the path towards artistic photography, now in medium format. The legendary British photographer, who after a visit to Almeria Pérez described Siquier’s collection as one of the most original in Spanish post-war photography, is happy to concede that he also anticipated the famous seaside resort and beach photography of Martin Parr. This dictum can now be checked on the basis of a good 130 works by the pioneer of Spanish color photography, who died a year ago: a discovery.
Perez Siquier. Photography Forum Frankfurt, Braubachstr. 30-32, until January 15, 2023. Opening hours: Tue to Sun 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
