For over thirty years, Chema Conesa, winner of the 2012 Madrid Regional Government Photography Award, has been assembling an extensive biography of Spain through his portraits. His sitters include leading Spanish figures in a whole range of fields, as well as international celebrities. Miguel Delibes, Pedro Almodóvar, Miquel Barceló, Rafael Alberti, Camarón, Francis Bacon, Eduardo Chillida, Ana María Matute, Ferran Adriá, José Saramago and Francis Ford Coppola are just some of the iconic names who have posed for him. His portraits are almost always in colour, and almost always favour a pose which reveals the sitter in a new light.
This exhibition organised by the Madrid Regional Government comprises over a hundred photographs in a variety of formats, spanning the whole of his career and including both the private and the spectacular. A book containing a wide selection of his work has been published to coincide with the exhibition.
Chema Conesa (Murcia, 1952), journalist, photographer and graphics editor, is a graduate in History of Art, Image and Journalism. He began his professional career in 1976 as a photographer and copy-editor for El País. He was later appointed head of photography for El Globo weekly, graphics editor at El País Semanal and deputy photo editor for El Mundo Magazine. He is the director of the PHotoBolsillo Library of Spanish Photographers and an adviser to the World Press Photo Foundation. He has curated a number of exhibitions, including Contactos by Ramón Masats and Lusofonías. Pisadas sonámbulas by Navia. In 2010, he was awarded the PHotoEspaña Bartolomé Ros Prize for the most outstanding Spanish career in photography.
