When I started in this profession, 48 years ago, I was looking for references, logically, to imbue myself with their styles and ways of photographing. It was 75 when I started at the newspaper Tele/expres and I had as a reference a great press photographer, Pepe Encinas.
The first day I saw Pep in that laboratory of the Grupo Mundo newspaper my legs shook and that’s when I began to enter the world of Barcelona photographers. I had heard of Colita, Miserachs, Pomés and Oriol Maspons, but they belonged to another “galaxy” of photographers. They rubbed shoulders with the intellectuality of the moment and their concerns were more artistic than those of us who dedicated ourselves to press photography.
At that time it was easier to make a living from photography if you worked in advertising or made books for publishers than if you were a press photographer. But over time that changed, many photography studios were closed and newspapers continued to provide a secure livelihood to continue enjoying this extraordinary profession.
Colita belonged to that Gauche Divine group that had a home in Barcelona and the Costa Brava, they photographed better than anyone “the movement” of the intellectuals and the rise of tourism in that beach area of ??the Catalan coast. Colita worked as a photographer at a time when it was not easy for a woman to hang the camera around her neck.
She had to work together with other photographers to reclaim the profession and gain a place in a dictatorship. The machismo of the time did not make this work easy and she demanded equality in the profession, but she also fought for the rights of the entire group of photographers.
Colita had her speech about photography, and that is appreciated in a photographer. It’s not enough to take good photos, you have to know how to explain and defend your work, also with words. I think that she was very comfortable in portraiture as a genre, with the self-confidence that she had about her that helped her get good portraits.
She proposed things to her characters that other people could hardly think of, and if it occurred to you, you didn’t have the confidence that she had in front of the character to achieve it. When you get in front of a character, if she sees you weak, she can take you and take you to her territory. It is noticeable in the portraits of Colita that she ruled the stage and almost always won.
In his gaze there was a very clear intentionality that, added to his intellect and his peculiar sense of humor, made his photos take on their own stamp, a Colita style. Today the last of the four Gauche Divine photographers also disappears, we are left orphaned of a reference, but also of a tireless fighter.
When I saw her for the last time she told me: “Pedro, I can’t take it anymore, I’m exhausted from taking photos, I’m terrified of picking up the camera,” and the camera is getting heavier and heavier.
