Exhibitions

Pérez Siquier. Colecciones Fundación Mapfre

Barcelona, Spain

Spanish modern photography, social documentary photography, colour photography, street observation and photographic avant-garde.

Photo Playa Serena, 1974
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Image credit

Playa Serena, 1974 Imatges: © Pérez Siquier, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2026 - Colecciones Fundación MAPFRE

Meet the artist

The Movement

Photo

ArtLovers Tip

Look for the moment when documentary photography becomes colour, rhythm and desire. Pérez Siquier’s power is that he shows Spain changing from the inside — not through official history, but through streets, bodies, beaches, walls and small fragments of everyday life.

Exhibition Highlights - What you'll see

Explore the sixty-year journey of Carlos Pérez Siquier, a photographer known for his curious heart and pioneering spirit. Staying true to his roots in Almería, Carlos created a poetic world of images all his own, choosing to follow his intuition rather than the artistic trends of big cities like Madrid or Barcelona.

In 1950, he co-founded the AFAL photography group and later launched its groundbreaking magazine alongside José María Artero. Together, they played a vital role in bringing fresh life to Spanish photography during a time when the country was still recovering from its difficult history. Through his work, Carlos didn’t just change the landscape of modern art—he also championed an entire generation of photographers, helping them finally earn the recognition they deserved as artists.

Pérez Siquier was a key figure in the modernization of Spanish photography. From Almería, away from the dominant Madrid and Barcelona art circuits, he developed a free and personal visual language. He also helped energize the Spanish photographic scene through AFAL, the Almería-based group and magazine created with José María Artero.

You’re watching:

  • La Chanca, the Almería neighbourhood he photographed with social attention and deep humanity
  • A Spain moving from post-war austerity toward tourism, consumer culture and visual spectacle
  • Everyday people, streets, bodies, beaches, walls, colours and signs
  • A photographer who could be socially engaged without losing poetry
  • Images where documentary reality gradually opens into Pop energy, irony and abstraction

The exhibition shows a photographer who did not need to leave the margins to become modern. He made the margin itself a place of vision.

Worth the trip

If you love photography that captures social change without becoming cold or distant.

Pérez Siquier matters because he helped transform Spanish photography at a time when the country was still marked by isolation after the Civil War and the dictatorship. Through AFAL, he helped give visibility to a generation of photographers who were beginning to be recognized as artists.

How to experience it

Start with La Chanca and look for empathy before composition.

Then follow the shift into colour: notice how Spain’s visual culture changes.

Pay attention to walls, beach bodies, signs and surfaces — Pérez Siquier often finds meaning in details.

Don’t separate beauty from social context; both coexist in his work.

If you also see Walker Evans: Now and Then at KBr, compare how both photographers turn everyday life into cultural evidence.

Barcelona, Spain

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