American People. American Documentary Photography (1930–1980): the José Luis Soler Vila Collection

In this selection of more than fifty images from the José Luis Soler Vila Collection, several decades of documentary photos, from 1930 to 1980, form a mosaic of faces and people who were spotted and caught on film in streets and everyday spaces of the United States by eleven brilliant American photographers. Leading names in their discipline, they exemplify a straightforward approach to reality which they all shared and promoted, each with their own aims and sensibilities, fascinated by capturing life with their cameras in order to simply show it as it is.

The exhibition shows works by the pioneers, such as Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Louis Faurer, and the colour pictures of Harry Callahan, Anthony Hernandez and Tod Papageorge from the 1960s and later.  This assortment of snapshots of american people and their everyday lives highlights the importance of the genre and enables us to trace its development, as well as to ‘put a face’ to the diverse and complex social realities of the United States over six decades.

The adjoining exhibition Beautiful People presents a selection of works from Tod Papageorge’s  Studio 54 series. Navigating the carefully decorated spaces designed for enjoyment (the dance floor, the bar, the VIP areas and the terrace), Papageorge immortalised the intensely earthly reality of that short-lived paradise of New York nightlife in photos. What we see in them is Studio 54 and its mythical aura as a significant cultural and artistic phenomenon: a collection of black and white images that ‘were always meant to speak for themselves’.