The Miserachs Biennial broadens the horizons

The Xavier Miserachs Photography Biennial celebrates its fourteenth edition from August 2 to October 18, turning Palafrugell into one of the great meeting points for documentary photography in Catalonia. With a total of eleven exhibitions, most of which are produced or curated by the festival itself, the program once again combines great names in the history of international photography with contemporary creators and young authors, without renouncing the recovery of the photographic heritage of the territory.

Considered one of the oldest photographic events in the country, the Biennial maintains the spirit with which it was born: to pay tribute to the legacy of Xavier Miserachs and his generation, to bring photography closer to the general public and to vindicate this language as a tool of memory, reflection and social transformation. Over the course of more than two months, various spaces in Palafrugell will host exhibitions, guided tours and parallel activities aimed at both the general public and educational centers.

• Florence Thompson and her children at a pea picker's camp. Nipomo, California, 1936. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Collection, Administration.

One of the great draws of this edition is Dorothea Lange. A Long Journey , an in-house production dedicated to one of the great pioneers of documentary photography. The exhibition brings together images from the Library of Congress of the United States that allow us to delve deeper into the work that Lange developed during the thirties and forties for the Farm Security Administration. The photographs document with extraordinary sensitivity the social consequences of the Great Depression on American agricultural families and recover some of the most emblematic images of the 20th century, among which the portrait of Florence Thompson with her children stands out.

Latin American photography also occupies a central place thanks to Sergio Larrain. El vagabundo de Valparaíso , the first major retrospective dedicated in Catalonia to the Chilean photographer and first Latin American author to be part of Magnum Photos. Produced by Magnum and organized jointly with the Foto Colectania Foundation, the exhibition traces the career of a fundamental creator through his photographs taken in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Europe, highlighting a poetic and deeply humanist perspective.

• Baker Street Underground Station. London, 1958-1959. Sergio Larrain/Magnum Photos.

The Vila Casas Foundation, through the Can Mario space, presents an exhibition dedicated to Gabriel Cualladó, an essential figure in the renewal of Spanish photography during the second half of the 20th century. The selection of portraits and everyday scenes demonstrates the modernity of an author who converted the simplest gestures into images full of intimacy.

One of the most unique proposals is Adjective time. Txema Salvans–Josep Pla , a dialogue between photography and literature that establishes parallels between the gaze of the contemporary photographer and that of the Empordà writer. The exhibition explores coincidences in their creative processes, from the rigorous observation of reality to the ability to convert the local into a universal experience.

• Series The Destruction of a Catastrophe, 2023. © Txema Salvans.

The Biennial continues to focus on recovering unknown archives from the region with Els Casanovas. Nissaga de fotografs , an investigation that reconstructs a century of Palafrugell's history based on the legacy initiated by Lluís Casanovas Marquès one hundred and fifty years ago. Also the result of citizen participation, this exhibition highlights a photographic heritage that is essential for understanding the collective memory of the municipality and is spread across various spaces in the city.

The relationship between photography and literature also stars in Fotografia [en] coberta , an exhibition that can be seen at the Nollegiu Mediterrània bookstore. The proposal brings together images used on book covers and presents a journey through the role of photography in the publishing world, with works by Gabriel Casas, Dorothea Lange, Colita, Agustí Centelles, Josep Carreras and Xavier Miserachs.

The festival reserves a prominent space for the new generations with three projects that address social and environmental issues from a contemporary perspective. Carles Palacio presents Treballadors de la mar , an approach to the present of artisanal fishing on the Costa Brava and the difficulties that the sector is going through. Wayra Ficapal reflects on the fragility of the Ebro Delta in El paisatge invisible , while Vero Mora Noya, a student at the ERAM School of Photography, signs Osses , a tribute to female caregivers who, at a certain point in their lives, go from caring to being cared for.

• Lluís Maimí. Modest Cuixart. Palafrugell, 1976. © Lluís Maimí Casanovas.

Coinciding with the centenary of the birth of Modest Cuixart, the Biennial adds to the commemoration with Cuixart a tres bandas i... , an exhibition that portrays the painter during the years he resided in Palafrugell through the photographs of three local authors: Lluís Maimí, Josep Capellà and Francesc Dalmau.

The exhibition tour is completed with Local is global , a selection of works from the Banc Sabadell Art Collection. Documentary photography that focuses on some of the great contemporary challenges —such as climate change, migration or economic, political and health crises— through the work of leading photojournalists such as Samuel Aranda, Toni Arnau, Lorenzo Meloni, Santi Palacios, Edu Ponces or Anna Surinyach, among others.