Leopoldo Pomés

Creative bases

Self-taught, Leopoldo Pomés soon became interested in photography, although he was always alien to the more traditional schools. In fact, with his first exhibition, in 1955 at the Galerías Layetanas in Barcelona, ​​he already generated controversy with a series of portraits that at the time revolutionized the city’s intellectuality. Many of the models portrayed there belonged to the avant-garde artistic group Dau al Set, with whom Pomés was closely related, being a social gathering companion of artists such as Joan Brossa, Antoni Tàpies and Modest Cuixart.

It was shortly after, when he began to collaborate and publish images in Afal Magazine, that he became known on a national scale, along with other avant-garde photographers. His favorite theme at that time would be loneliness, a recurring theme that he would continue to develop throughout his career and that, in 2006, he would star in a retrospective exhibition in Barcelona of his photographic work between the 50s and the 70s.

His switch to advertising

Pomés’ interests were broad and, for example, he was also a photographer and wrote poetry, winning the 2nd Ossa Menor prize for this last activity. However, the sector quickly caught their attention in advertising. In 1961, he founded Studio Pomés, together with Karin Leiz, and became known as an advertising photographer. In 1963, he joined the Tiempo advertising agency as creative director.

From that moment on, he began an ascending career that would lead him to film more than 3,000 advertising spots and 40 documentaries, in addition to obtaining numerous awards as a creative and advertising director. In this field, among many other works, his campaigns for Terry between 1964 and 1974 are especially remembered, a brand for which he created the memorable image of a girl riding with bare legs on a white horse, which the writer and journalist Manuel Vázquez Montalbán would qualify as responsible for having eroticized the entire country; numerous campaigns for Freixenet since 1966, creating the concept of the popular “Freixenet bubbles”, which will also become the brand image; the holding of the opening ceremony of the World Football Championship in Barcelona in 1982, together with Víctor Sagi; the 1985/86 campaign for the candidacy of the Barcelona ’92 Olympic Games, or the final documentary of the Barcelona ’92 Olympic Games.

Recovery and recognition of his photographic work

In 2006, Pomés abandoned the practice of advertising and dedicated himself full time to reviewing his extensive photographic archive. In this way, he rescues a large part of his work that had been dormant for many years and dedicates himself to polishing these findings, beginning in these years his international projection as a photographer.

It is in 2018 when he receives the National Photography Award, as a reference in the configuration of the country’s collective imagination.

Pomés is also the author of several books, including a collection of poems, two dedicated to gastronomy, and a memoir, which he presented in 2019, the same year as his death.