Pilar Aymerich says she never goes out hunting for photographs like Robert Doisneau, but instead goes out fishing. “My technique was always the same: Arrive at the scene very early, control the lighting, try to be invisible, and then wait.” She also always carries a compactor in her bag during demonstrations, and when the police started attacking, “I stood in a corner to put on lipstick and they kept walking past me,” she says. “I replaced power with finesse”He admits that he is the great photographer of the social movements of the 70s and 80s in Catalonia. It now brings together 50 years of snapshots, iconic portraits, memoirs and the occasional candid confession. ‘Pilar Aymerich’s Barcelona’ (Comanegra, in bookstores today). He is also opening an exhibition called ‘Los vintages de Pilar Aymerich’ at the Rocío Santacruz Gallery.
What was it like to bring together 50 years of experience? Photography In a book?
Everyone who devotes themselves to photography has a possessive side. As the years pass, your drawers become full of photos of the people you love. You are also aware that you are writing a piece of the country’s history. It happened to me, too, with those who returned from exile, and I’m lucky to be able to portray them. Most soon disappeared.
Do you have a favorite photo?
It was exciting to meet again Montserrat Roig, Fabià Puigserver and three other deportees from the Nazi camps: Ferran Planes, Joan Pagès and Joaquim Amat-Piniella. As I posed one after another as if in a field, their faces completely changed in a matter of seconds. I felt bad for causing them this pain, but I think the photo speaks to the immense pain that resurfaces 40 years later. The photo of Montserrat pregnant, resting, and writing an article about the deported is also one of my favorites. She feared that the horrors the survivors had told her would affect the baby. If she saw her son Roger today, she would be very proud.
He argues that the photography was made delicately and “through a woman’s eye.”
Yes, they are neither better nor worse than a man’s. But my opinion is different because I received a different education. When you take a photo, you choose which part of reality you choose to show. It’s a delicate job because we’re playing with people. There is always some violence in photography, an aggression that I try to soften. To take photographs, you need to be honest with yourself and not get caught up in an image that, although beautiful, does not correspond to reality. It is important to remember that photographers have the power to change reality.
In the book, he explains how he learned to thrive with his uncle in France.
Yes, he taught me to respect photography, he worked with colors in a very special way. I was very technical and I inherited that: all my negatives are flawless, I always paid a lot of attention to improvement. I came from living in a loft in London where I discovered what freedom was. I wanted to be a theater director. I left Barcelona very lost, I had no excitement here, the outlook was very grey. The city was very depressing.
Many of the photographs she took related to the feminist movement Transition They are iconic today, like the mother with her little son and the poster that says ‘Jo sóc adúltera’, do you remember that show?
Perfectly. All the shows are like theater plays, they reach their climax especially if you go inside. I followed that mother and her son for a long time, and eventually the image of accomplices emerged, telling a truth and a moment. At that time, a woman committing adultery was punishable by six years in prison, this was no joke.
The image of Trinitat dams is also quite strong.
I did this shortly after the sisters of Christ the King left the prison. They did not make the prisoners wear trousers, did not allow them to read the press, censored their letters… It was a kind of psychological torture, they infantilized them. Many were in prison for adultery or having an abortion. We held demonstrations to demand female prison officers and in ’78 we got the nuns gone. They took the keys to all the closets, there were not even sheets. The prisoners were managing themselves and it was a great moment to see how they organized themselves in the kitchen shifts, in the workshops, in the cleaning work…
He says photography has healing powers.
Yes, it gets better because you give someone back their identity. This is something I saw when photographing prisoners and felt again when photographing children in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. Or I play the first transsexuals who came to Barcelona for surgery, like a truck driver from Córdoba whom I met at the Dome of Venus. She was changing gender and I suggested she make herself beautiful so I could take a few photos that were never published because of course it was 1979. To do such things, you need to go calmly, let people see that you are not going. that you will not attack them and make fun of them. I’ve always loved showing marginal, unknown worlds.
How do you experience the new? feminist wave?
Feminism was extinguished like a ‘soufflé’ in the 80s, and for decades the only people who showed up were the few and the elderly. That’s why I was excited when I saw thousands of women filling Passeig de Gràcia on March 8, 2018. Because I didn’t believe it, I went to Palau Robert to take photos. I thought: At least all these years of struggle were in vain, there is a generation to continue. There’s a lot to do. First of all, don’t let them kill us.
Women’s Day photos are also historical.
Decades later, they asked me for these things. When it was celebrated, feminism was of no interest to anyone, let alone the newspapers. Montserrat Roig always said that there was silence around her when she said she was a feminist. She felt like a vase after Franco’s death when all the progressive and leftist round tables called her out because they needed a woman. They still continue to do this.
Was photography a man’s world when you started?
Yes, but in my case, for example, everything went well because the police never thought that a woman could devote herself to this. I went to the shows well-dressed and with make-up. They never stopped me and I could sneak into places a man couldn’t.
Like at Josep Pla’s house, right?
Yes, he was already very old then. Montserrat Roig had gone to interview him, and at the end of the conversation she asked him for writing advice. He looked her up and down and said: ‘Madam, you don’t need to write with these legs.’ Days later, I snuck into his house and pretended to be a fan who had come to bring him some books to take pictures with.
How do you experience the resurgence of Montserrat Roig?
After his death, his figure seemed to have been somewhat abandoned… but now there is a whole new generation of young people who feel identified with him. I have girls call me and tell me they read one of her books, and it continues to impress me.
What are you missing to photograph?
A lot of things! I always say I’ll die with my boots on. I would like to photograph immigrant children because they are the future of this country.
How are you with Instagram?
I’m a disaster due to lack of time. And because of laziness. I only use one app and that is to view photos and videos of my favorite cats.