Documentary - NOMINEE: Jorge López Muñoz

“I didn’t know why I was photographing gypsies, but I did know that I was building something and that I had to embrace it all”.
–Josef Koudelka.

This is a project of artistic documentary and portrait photography.

The Clot neighborhood has virtually disappeared, with the only remains left standing on the dockworkers’ block. Its inhabitants are mostly Gypsy families who have occupied the abandoned apartments in the building.

Gypsies belong to Spain’s largest ethnic minority, a minority that is very heavily socially stereotyped and according to various surveys, also the group most harshly rejected by mainstream society.

This work is a reflection, a way to explore the world and understand it. I am interested in the individual, their face and architectural environment. I have always worked with human beings, with real people and their real situations, with people as photographic object.

I seek an unbreakable but intimate portrait, direct but sensitive, objectively powerful but full of personal emotion, the product of commitment to people and their environment.

Although the Clot is a slum I have not encountered either rejection or pain. They are, in short, impoverished but also happy people, even openly proud. I want to show how they live, trying to turn this work into an affirmation of the dignity and humanity that is in all people, and trying to capture in pictures the wild vitality and hope of this community.

Present in the background there are, however, more ambitious objectives: methodically documenting all aspects of gypsy culture, its territory and its people, becoming a work about their identity.

About El Clot

El Clot (The Hole) building is an apartment block that for the last 20 years has been under threat by a City Hall plan that forecasts the demolition of 1.651 homes in El Cabanyal, Valencia’s historic fisherman neighborhood, in order to extend Blasco Ibanyez Avenue until the seafront. Meanwhile, the City Hall has acquired several homes in the area, to shut and brick them up, waiting for their demolition (planned for next year).

For the last years, tens of homeless gypsy families have occupied and restored some of these empty apartments in El Clot. This has put these families into the police’s and the Court’s spotlight. Recently, the neighbors have come together to defend themselves and to raffle a lot of other holes that they must face on a daily basis, such as exclusion, poverty, racism or real state mobing.

About author:
Photography Degree, EASD Art and Design College of Valencia.
Master of Fine Art Photography and Professional Projects, LENS School of Visual Arts of Madrid.
Master in Graphic Arts, UPV Polytechnic University of Valencia.
Extraordinary Prize of Plastic Arts and Design 2015, Conselleria de Educación, Investigación, Cultura y Deporte.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019.07 · HELSINKI Photo Festival 2019. Historic Old Customs House in Katajanokka - Helsinki, Finland.
2018.05 · HEAD ON Photo Festival 2018. Paddington Town Hall - Sydney, Australia.
2018.05 · PHOTOMETRIA 2018. Misiou Mansion - Ioannina, Greece.
2017.10 · Sala EFTI. Madrid, Spain.
2016.10 · EMERGENCIAS 2016. Centro Cultural de Noáin - Navarra, Spain.
2016.06 · AMSTEL ART. Veles e Vents Building - Valencia, Spain.
2015.11 · NANO Festival de Fotografía 2015. FOLA Fototeca Latinoamericana - Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2015.11 · WARSAW PHOTO DAYS 2015 Festival. No4 Gallery - Warsaw, Poland.
2015.06 · BARBASTRO FOTO 2015 Festival. Sala El Moliné - Barbastro, Huesca, Spain.
2015.05 · Public Art Exhibition with JR’s Insideoutproject. Valencia, Spain.

He has exhibited widely worldwide as part of group exhibitions, including, among others, in Whitebox Gallery (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), London College of Communication (London, U.K.), Boyd School Studios (Melbourne, Australia), Rectorate Gallery (Novi Sad, Serbia), Museo de la ciudad de León (Guanajuato, México), Centro Cultural Casa de Vacas (Madrid, Spain), Complejo Cultural Santa Cruz (Río Gallegos, Patagonia Argentina), OCCC Octubre Centre de Cultura Contemporània (Valencia, Spain), Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras (Alicante, Spain), Galeria de Arte do Teatro Municipal da Guarda (Portugal), Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid, Spain), 59Rivoli Gallery (Paris, France), Somerset House (London, U.K.), MUO Museum of Arts and Crafts (Zagreb, Croatia), Sarajevo City Hall (Bosnia-Herzegovina), NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (Aachen, Germany) and Four Freedoms Park (New York, U.S.A.).

SELECTED AWARDS

2019.07 · HELSINKI Photo Festival 2019. Helsinki, FINLAND. (Winner).
2019.04 · ADELPHI Photo Award 2019. Berlin, GERMANY. (Winner).
2018.11 · XXVI PREMIOS DE FOTOGRAFIA PROFESIONAL LUX 2018. Barcelona, SPAIN. (Winner).
2018.02 · Annual SMITHSONIAN Photo Contest 2017. Washington DC, U.S.A. (Finalist).
2017.11 · II Premio de Fotografía CARLOS PÉREZ SIQUIER. Granada, SPAIN. (2nd Place Winner).
2017.03 · Premio CARTA BLANCA Sala EFTI. Madrid, SPAIN. (Winner).
2016.08 · AI-AP LAF5 Latin American Fotografía 5. New York, U.S.A. (Winner).
2016.05 · SAN JOSE FOTO Festival (International Award). San José, URUGUAY. (First Prize Winner).
2016.04 · SONY WPO / ZEISS Photography Award. London, U.K. (Shortlisted).
2016.03 · CANSON ART School Awards 2016. Paris, FRANCE. (Winner).
2016.02 · ONE EYELAND Bronze Award for Fine Art Portrait Category. Chennai, INDIA. (Winner).
2016.02 · VIEWFIND Visual Storytelling Grant. San Francisco, U.S.A. (Judges’ Special Mention).
2016.02 · GPF STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZES 2015. Guernsey, G.B. (Shortlisted).
2016.01 · GOMMA Photography Grant 2015. London, U.K. (Shortlisted).
2015.12 · FIFTH WORLD BIENNIAL EXHIBITION of Student Photography. Novi Sad, SERBIA. (Winner).
2015.10 · EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER 2015. New York, U.S.A. (Selected).
2015.09 · WACOM’S CREATE MORE PROJECT Exchange Programme. London, U.K. (Winner).
2015.06 · KLPA Kuala Lumpur International Photo Awards 2015. Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA. (Finalist).
2015.05 · PDN Photo Annual Photography Contest 2015. New York, U.S.A. (Winner).