Tail

OjoColita

Exposure EYETAIL 

Press release

Isabel Steva, more commonly known as  Tail (Barcelona, 1945) exhibited at the Gallery Fernández-Braso de Madrid a selection of more than seventy photographs, chosen especially by the author for this occasion.

After the 18th of June and throughout July we can see pictures from his personal archive, in many cases, published author (unique pieces), other times and other run current. In any case, often work only for a work unique in space and time, a time in which the authors photographed, enlarged, reveal, set... this is the case.

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Biography

Isabel Steva “Tail” he was born in Barcelona, in the heart of the Eixample neighborhood, an August 24, 1940, at the hour of the siesta. He studied until the age of 17 in the Sacred Heart, and after finishing the graduate school of letters, he moved for a year to Paris to study French Civilization at the Sorbonne University.

On his return to Barcelona, known to the photographer Oriol Maspons, Julio Ubiña, Francesc Català Roca and Xavier Miserachs, from whom he learned the "office" and is professional as a photographer, although she has always considered Paco Rebés as their "discoverer" and his mentor. In 1962, working in the file, characters in the film Los Tarantos the director Rovira Beleta and befriends the protagonist, the great dancer of flamenco Carmen Amaya. His love of flamenco leads her to Madrid, where he settled for two years. Performs the photographs for the promotion of Antonio Gades and the Chunga. The fruit of this period, it is your book Lights and shadows of Flamenco (Editorial Lumen) with text by José Caballero Bonald, re-edited and expanded in 1998.

The longing for the Mediterranean, and his hometown, he returns to Barcelona. They were the last years of the Franco regime, and collaborates with the press progressive of the time, highlighting, Frames, Tele-Express, Daily World, and Destination. His first exhibition was Evocaciò the Modernism, (Association of Architects, 1965), a collective of the artists: Argimón, Tail, Curós, Jordi Galí, Guinovart, Oriol Maspons, Ràfols Casamada, Tharrats and Roman Vallès, curated by Cesáreo Rodríguez Aguilera.

Toggles the press with the film, collaborating with the so-called School of Barcelona (Aranda, Path, Esteva, Duràn, Suarez etc), current cinema that arises in Barcelona with the ambition to make a film of european cut and progressive, as opposed to the film “official” of the Dictatorship. This gives you the opportunity to work with the best directors of photography of the moment, as Luis Cuadrado, Juan Amorós, Fernando Arribas, etc

Specializes in portrait and is considered one of the photographers of the so-called Gauche Divine barcelona (group of professionals, intellectuals and artists of the time), with this collection of portraits, he held an exhibition in the gallery Aixelà (1971), which was sponsored by Boccaccio and the promoter Oriol Regàs. It turned out the shortest exposure of your career. It was closed the next day by the police.

In 1967 collaborates closely with the record label Edigsa, and the movement of The Nova Cançó, conducting media campaigns and promotion, album covers, posters, etc, Guillermina Motta, Núria Feliu, Ovidi Montllor, Raimòn and Joan Manuel Serrat are some of the artists most-photographed by the author. In 1998, this collaboration is embodied in the exhibition The Serrat of Tail.

His love of the detective novel and mystery makes Beatriz de Moura, director of Tusquest Editors, we rely collection Black Series, which agrees with the direction of the department of photography magazine Vindication Feminist until 1978.

During the democratic transition collaborates with Interviu, Reporter, Notebooks for the Dialog, in The Street, Boccaccio, etc, Tri -, 48-year career, he has conducted more than 40 exhibitions and published more than 30 books on photography.

After the arrival of the democratic city councils and the demise of the Franco regime, specializes in photographing your town, Barcelona, spain, and its Metropolitan Area, showing its change and evolution, and always reflecting the cultural and social life of Catalonia.

His work appears in the collection of the Museo Nacional D'art de Catalunya.

Part of his extensive work, it is deposited in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, in the Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona, in the Institut del Teatre, the Fundació Campalans, the Fundació Brossa and the Filmoteca de Catalunya.

In 1998, the city Council imposes on him the Medal of Artistic Merit, along with the photographer Oriol Maspons and Leopoldo Pomès.

In the year 2004 get the Creu de Sant Jordi, granted by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Police station exposures Fotògrafes Pioneres Catalunya (2005), in the Palau Robert in Barcelona, along with the historian Mary Nash, opening a window to the recovery of the photographers have forgotten.

In 2009 she received the awards Joan Reventós to the Popular Memory of the Fundación Rafael Campalans; FAD of Honor Sebastià Gasch of para-theatrical Arts and the Award to the Non-Sexist Communication, awarded by Dones Periodistes.

His work appears in the collection of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia and in the permanent collection of the Museo Reina Sofia.

Medal of FAD 2012, an award that since 1928 distinguishes every year the recognition of the work and the trajectory of several characters, projects and Institutions, for a comprehensive work, or a life trajectory solid, and continued in one of the many lands that make up the set of the arts.

It has also been named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Bellaterra, Barcelona, in the year 2012.

In the year 2014, she was awarded the National Photography prize, prize rejected by the situation of the Culture and Education in the Spain of the minister Wert and the president Rajoy.

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Video presentation

Catalog

Selection of Work