JOAN COLOM 1921-2017 - BOOK - Lot 77

JOAN COLOM 1921-2017 - BOOK "Izas, Rabizas y Colipoterras", Barcelona: Editorial Lumen, 1964, 92p. Book. Edition signed, dated and dedicated by Colom to Josep Martinez, a great friend of the photographer and curator of exhibitions. Text by Camilo José Cela and 33 full-page photographs including one fold-out by Juan Colom, graphic design by Cristian Cirici and Oscar Tusquets, photographic montage on cover. Bibliography: Parr & Badger I, pp. 220-221; "802 photo books from the M. + M. Auer Collection", p.432. 22.8 x 21.4 cm In 1964, Lumen published the book "Izas, rabizas y colipoterras" (Cranes, climbers, escamoters), with a text by Camille José Cela, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The book was a great success, but also the subject of a scandal: in this totally repressive period dominated by Francoism, it was hardly surprising that highlighting this space for freedom was not in vogue. A veritable social theater, the Raval, a district of Barcelona also known as the "Barrio Chino", provided Joan Colom with a stage on which to create images that are now emblematic of a district and an era. In his photographs, avant-garde modernity blends intimately with the pessimistic "black" tradition of Franco's Spain in the 1950s. "These women had my respect and nothing exotic about them; these images were part of a whole that claimed to describe a neighborhood with a spirit of respectful fidelity". Joan Colom walks the streets according to his basic principle: "Yo hago la calle" - I do the sidewalk - a play on words that Henri Cartier-Bresson was also very fond of. Colom and Cartier-Bresson had met in 2003 at the HCB retrospective in Barcelona. Colom had just been awarded the Grand Prix National de la Photographie espagnole. HCB's few must-see images of Spain in the thirties are, of course, in everyone's memory. Joan Colom was unaware of them when he began his work, which was certainly different, but driven by the same impetuous desire to capture life as closely as possible: "We wanted a photograph that captured life; we wanted to live the street". The imagination of Raval life is now rooted in his images.