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North Africa. Ortiz Echagüe - Press file
However, on returning to Morocco in the 1960s, Ortiz Echagüe was confronted with a different reality: the modernisation of the country. The African typologies that he had captured before, those of such picturesque and ideal exoticism - had now disappeared. Ortiz interpreted this transformation by capturing rarefied environments, persons out of context and solitary landscapes with backdrops of surreal clouds. The result was nostalgia for a vanishing world. In this vein, Sirocco in the Sahara (1965) is his last great achievement. As if at a junction in his work, the experimentation of texture and composition takes precedence over documentation.
Now, the Museu Nacional dArt Catalunya, in collaboration with the Museo Universidad de Navarra, presents the most spontaneous and creative moment of Ortiz Echagües photography: the initial nucleus of his activity, where we encounter one of the most creative periods in the history of photography. Nevertheless, the exhibition not only focuses on the canon of the photographer, but also lesser known stages of his work: his military photographs captured from aboard the armys hot air balloons. Ultimately, the total of seventy-nine photographs, together with essential documents, facilitates an understanding of this junction in the work of Ortiz Echagüe during his time in North Africa.
Exhibition Catalogue