Last Sunday September 3, 2017, we lost Joan Colom at 96, one of the best photographers of the photographic history in Catalonia, a photojournalist pioneer in our country and an essential figure in the photography collection of the Museu Nacional.

His most famous photos, taken at the barri xino (Barcelona’s Chinatown) during the 60’s, are a combination of the testimony of a marginal life and the modernity of the photo story. Taking photos without looking through the lens, holding the camera low, trying to conceal what he was doing; he achieved great realism in his photos of the life in the street. Josep Maria Casademont, an art critic, named him the best graphic journalist of all times in Spain and he included Colom, with other great photographers like Francesc Català-Roca and Oriol Maspons, in the New Photo Vanguard.

During his life, Colom received the National Photography Prize in 2002, the Gold Medal for Cultural Achievements by the Ajuntament of Barcelona in 2003, the National Prize of Visual Arts in 2004 and Saint George’s Cross in 2006.

From the museum we want to thank the artist and his family for all his generosity, and also express our will to continue to work in the investigation, conservation and dissemination of his works.

To know more about this magnificent photographer, you can read our blog “Joan Colom, the street photographer”.