Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Lecciones de danza (Georgia) [Dance Lessons (Georgia)]

Image caption
CRISTINA GARCÍA RODERO

Lecciones de danza (Georgia) [Dance Lessons (Georgia)]

  • 1995
  • Silver gel print on baryta paper with selenium treatment
  • 53 x 80 cm
  • Cat. F_160
  • Acquired in 2014
By:
Isabel Tejeda

In 1995 García Rodero worked with Médecins Sans Frontières to produce a report in Georgia, arriving shortly after the former Soviet republic had emerged from a bloody civil war sparked by the disintegration of the USSR. She found herself in refugee territory, getting about with the sole aid of a car and a translator. It was the first of a series of trips, the last in 2013, during which she narrated the process of change in the country.

The two black-and-white photographs in the Banco de España Collection were taken on her first trip. They centre on the simple life of children living in a country living through the aftermath of war. These pictures, perhaps the most upbeat in the series, show how an innocent look can overcome all the adversities of a devastated society. She depicted schools where young children from poor families gathered in surprise to see the photographer, an outsider, and she goes from observing to being observing (Child Circle, 1995). In another of her photographs, a dark mark on the wall serves as a makeshift blackboard, in front of which a seven-year-old girl dances, looking both serious and elegant (Dance Lessons, 1995). García Rodero was enthralled by Georgia, saying that it 'moved me, it reminded me of Spain [...] They are southerners, southern people, warm... They like food, wine, dance [...] and they were in dire straits'. These stark images clearly recall the country that García Rodero had depicted in her 1989 book España oculta (Hidden Spain).

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
Cristina García Rodero
Puertollano (Ciudad Real) 1949

Cristina García Rodero is a documentary photographer with three decades of professional experience. She studied fine arts and for many years taught photography at the Complutense University (1983- 2007). Her early work involved researching and photographing Spanish religious and festive traditions. The result of these investigations was her award-winning España oculta (Hidden Spain), a book of great anthropological and photographic value, in which she portrayed the deep heart of Spain, so dear to Spanish literature and imagery. The key feature of her work is the way it reflects her contact with people in sensitive images, telling condensed and concentrated stories. In the great tradition of documentary photography, she is interested in unique moments and defends 'poetry and mystery, within a reality'. She has travelled extensively (to Germany, Haiti, France and Georgia, amongst many other countries), immersing herself in other cultural traditions, in search of the real lives of the local inhabitants. She has worked for Unesco and Médecins Sans Frontières in Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia.

Amongst her accolades, she has won the Planeta Photography Prize (1985); the Book of the Year Award at the Arles Photography Festival (España oculta, 1989); the Eugene Smith Foundation Award (New York, 1989); First prize for art photography at the World Press Photo awards (1993); the National Photography Award (1996); and a Gold Medal for Fine Arts (2005). She has been a full member of the Magnum agency since 2009 and a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (2013). Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2001); the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid, 1985); the University of Arizona (Tucson, United States, 1988); the Madrid Museum of Contemporary Art (1989); the Musée Nicéphore Niépce (Chalon-sur-Saône, France, 1989); the National Museum of Anthropology (Madrid, 1992); the Meadows Museum (Dallas, USA, 2000); the Casa de América (Madrid, 2003); and Sala Alcalá 31 (Madrid, 2008), among others.

Isabel Tejeda

 
«Georgia (1995-2013)» (Madrid, 2013).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.