The photographer Jean Marie del Moral (Montoire, France, 1952) has a humanist view of the world. He observes with the same interest, and photographs with the same respect, any situation, object or person that he encounters in front of the lens. Del Moral's relationship with what he portrays – whether they be renowned artists or anonymous people, all kinds of landscapes or unusual street situations – is serene and intense. It is the same relationship that he invites the public to have with his photos, which do not impose themselves on the observer’s sight but rather invite the viewer to look, without shrillness nor over-dramatic effects.
Since he began as a photojournalist in the legendary French communist newspaper L’Humanité, Del Moral’s career has spanned almost half a century and has resulted in a rich and varied work. The richness and variety of Del Moral’s work are the result of the richness and variety in his life, marked by three factors: his status as the son of exiled Spanish republicans and his dual Spanish-French identity; his discovery of art, at a very young age, a passion that has always accompanied him and that has been one of the driving forces behind his work; and, finally, a nomadic lifestyle, which has led him to travel extensively around the world, from the two Americas to Russia and Africa, through China and the entire European continent.
The exhibition Life vest under your seat, curated by Pere Antoni Pons, presents a synthetic but representative sample of Del Moral’s vast work. It focuses on four themes: his work on artists and workshops (Miró, Barceló, Fenosa, among others); the panorama over a half a century of a planet as diverse as it is changing; the portraits of renowned or anonymous people; and his forays into the realms of the most experimental (in)formalism. These photos always seek beauty and meaning. And they find them.
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