Joana Biarnés

Witness a time of social and cultural changes

Her images show an important stage of the 20th century: the years of the Franco regime, with a sad and impoverished Spain, and the beginnings of democracy, its aspirations for freedom and how illusion was recovered. Joana Biarnés knew how to capture a changing society, also leaving testimony of catastrophes, sporting events and social events.

Important people of national art such as Dalí, Buñuel, Lola Flores, Rocío Durcal, Rocío Jurado, Marisol, Massiel, Joan Manuel Serrat or Raphael paraded before her camera, portrayed in a close and natural way. And international artists such as Orson Welles, Jack Lemmon, Yul Brinner, Roman Polanski, Clint Eastwood, or the Beatles themselves also surrendered to their charisma, being the only one who came to photograph the band in the privacy of their hotel room, during his Spanish tour.

A pioneering woman in photojournalism

Started in the profession as an assistant to her father, a sports photographer, she became a pioneer by overcoming the prejudices of what was until then a sector reserved for men.

She triumphed as a photojournalist, especially between the 60s and 70s, but in the 80s, faced with the rise of sensationalism and the tabloid press, she preferred to abandon the profession and dedicate herself to new personal challenges, thus fading from official history.

However, in 2012, her archive would be rediscovered by chance, when a documentary filmmaker, who was looking for images of floods in Catalonia in 1962, located the impressive images with which the then young apprentice had immortalized that disaster. This is how, fortunately, we recovered the trail of a legendary photographer.

Since 2014, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation has been representative of the Joana Biarnés Archive and one of our great pride has been to have worked side by side with the photographer at the time of her rediscovery, collaborating in her well-deserved media and institutional recognition. Over the course of five years we researched and digitized her archive, organized exhibitions, arranged interviews with the author, defended her intellectual property rights, and sold her photographs to collectors. In addition, we co-edited the anthological book Disparando con el corazón with Blume Editorial and co-produced the documentary Una entre todos, together with Rec Produccions (link to see it on Filmin). We also had the pleasure of participating in the episode dedicated to Joana that closed the first season of the TVE docuseries Detrás del Instante about greats of Spanish photography, and also in the biography No serà fàcil. Joana Biarnés, una fotògrafa en un món d’homes, by Jordi Rovira, published in Catalan by La Campana.

The legacy of Joana Biarnés and the future of photojournalism

Since the photographer’s death in December 2018, we have had the honor of continuing to manage her legacy and copyright and make her work available to collectors. Since 2022, the Photographic Foundation is also the owner of the Joana Biarnés Archive and guards the negatives that hold Biarnés’ original work, thanks to the generous donation made by Jean Michel Bamberger, journalist and Joana’s widower.

Today, Joana has regained her place as indispensable in photography in this country. But there is still much to do in disseminating his figure and his vital principles. That is why in 2019, coinciding with the first anniversary of her loss, we presented the Beca Joana Biarnés (a scholarship for young photojournalists), with which we annually fulfill one of the photographer’s last wishes: that the benefits of her work go towards strengthening professional development. of future generations of photojournalists.