“Emancipations” revisits the Foto Colectania collection through two parallel transformations: Spanish society’s move away from traditional structures, and photography’s growing independence, ambition and exploration of new ways to engage with reality. Curated by Florian Ebner, head of the Photography Department at the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition spans the post-war period to the present day, bringing together portraits, scenes of social life, cities and landscapes. It explores how people and places change, as well as how photography’s focus changes over time.
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The exhibition is divided into three chapters, tracing the evolution of photography from the humanist tradition of the post-war period to new identities and communities, and then to practices that, since the 1980s, have challenged our understanding of documentary photography.
Here, photographs are about more than what’s on the walls. Albums, press prints, printing proofs, fanzines and other documents are just as much a part of the exhibition, showing how an image’s meaning can change with its format, scale and context.
