Exhibition
Leopoldo Pomés - Michael Hoppen Gallery
Photographs by Leopoldo Pomés will be exhibited for the first time in the UK at Michael Hoppen Gallery in December. Born in Barcelona in 1931, Pomés, a self-taught photographer, had a highly successful and celebrated late career in advertising in his native Spain. However, it is his evocative early photographs of Barcelona that will form the basis of this new exhibition.
Taken between 1947 and 1969 these vintage photographs of Barcelona show a city in flux. With humour Pomés captures the ancient and the modern existing side by side in post-war Barcelona: a horse and cart being overtaken by a motorcar (1947) , a knife sharpener oblivious to a risqué Sophia Loren poster, graffiti on a crumbling wall and a piano on the street waiting to be played during the fiera. Pomés’ intimate relationship with the fabric of Barcelona is evident in these images and he admits that he has never wanted tonor been driven to photograph any other city apart from his own. Using only natural light and shadow, these photographs reflect not only the people and buildings but also the rhythm of this fascinating Catalán city.
