COLITA Isabel Steva Hernández

COLITA Isabel Steva Hernández - Girl at the Barceloneta Market

Technique: Silver gelatin

Artist Biography: Isabel Steva "Colita" was born in Barcelona, in the heart of the Eixample district, on August 24, 1940, at siesta time. She studied until the age of 17 at the Sacred Heart School, and after finishing the pre-university of letters, she moved to Paris for a year to study French Civilization at the Sorbonne University. On her return to Barcelona, she met the photographers Oriol Maspons, Julio Ubiña, Francesc Català Roca and Xavier Miserachs, from whom she learned the "trade" and became a professional photographer, although she has always considered Paco Rebés as her "discoverer" and mentor. She specializes in portraiture and is considered one of the photographers of the so-called Gauche Divine. Colita, in 40 years of profession, has held more than 40 exhibitions and published more than 30 photography books. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Reina Sofia Museum and the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), and part of her extensive work is deposited in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, the Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona, the Institut del Teatre, the Fundació Campalans, the Fundació Brossa and the Filmoteca de Catalunya. She has also been named Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2012. In 2014 she was awarded the National Photography Prize, an award she rejects due to the situation of culture and education in Spain at the time. In 2015 he was awarded the Bartolomé Ros Prize for the best Spanish career in photography. The jury, formed by Rosa Ros, responsible for the legacy of Bartolomé Ros; Gervasio Sánchez, photographer; Rafael Doctor Roncero, curator; João Fernandes, deputy director of the Reina Sofía Museum; and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña, want to recognize with this award "the coherence of his career, his professional independence and the whole of his work, witness of an era, lived from the inside. In January 2017 he exhibits Colita Flamenco at the Palacio de Carlos V de La Alhambra in Granada, a selection of his best flamenco photographs, of which a magnificent catalog is published for the occasion. Another milestone in his professional career. In November 2018 and coinciding with the 40th Anniversary of the Spanish Constitution, the great exhibition The Power of Art is organized in the Senate and Congress (Madrid), where Colita exhibits 40 photographs belonging to the collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) and has the honor of being chosen one of his images of the Spanish transition as a poster and graphic image of the same.