Carlos Pérez Siquier on permanent display at PITA
PITA (Scientific-Technological Park of Almería) has placed photographer Carlos Pérez Siquier on permanent display in its virtual gallery. Internet users will be able to see his photo exhibition entitled ‘La Chanca, quite a neighbourhood,’ dedicated to one of Almeria’s oldest neighbourhoods. The gallery will exhibit a series of pictures that brought the photographer great acclaim and also proved to be a turning point in Spanish photography in the 1960s.
This series of photos is a virtual representation of the exhibition that was on display in the Museum of Almería from 7th February to 13th March, 2011 and which was organized by the Institute of Almería Studies (IEA, in Spanish). The exhibition brings together snapshots that belong to Carlos Pérez Siquier’s first photographic collection of the Almería neighbourhood La Chanca. This series of photos is a humanistic documentary that depicts normal people in their everyday routines. Its avant-garde nature marked a turning point in Spanish photography, and in the career of Carlos Pérez Siquier. This Almería photographer has work on display in numerous permanent collections, namely Reina Sofia National Museum and Art Centre, Foundations of Telefónica, La Caixa and Foto Colectania, Cualladó and Ordóñez-Falcó, Atlantic Centre of Modern Art in Las Palmas, Spain, Andalusian Photography Centre, Andalusian Centre for Contemporary Art and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Granada.
The virtual adaptation of this exhibition was backed by PITA, which always strives to be at the forefront of science and technology that maintain harmony with culture and history. The virtual gallery reproduces the same exhibition room where the 74 photographs were on display. For its assembly, all of the original photos were scanned under the supervision and guidance of Carlos Pérez Siquier himself. Internet users can visit the gallery by clicking on the banner entitled EXPOSICIÓN VIRTUAL on PITA's homepage. Then, they will need to download the navigation plug-in which allows them to view the exhibition in 3D.
The presentation screens and texture touch-ups were done in 2D. However, the modelling of the display room, the textures of the materials in the room, the lighting, and the elements of decoration and the photos were all worked on in 3D by editors Jorge Bretones and Isabel Ausejo.
Towards the end of the 1950s Carlos Pérez Siquier was a co-founder of the Almería Photographic Society (AFAL) and the magazine of the same name. These two initiatives established the foundations for a new era in documentary photography in Spain. They also united a generation of photographers such as Masats, Terré, Cualladó, Ontañón, Miserachs, Paco Gómez, Schommer and Maspons.
