Joan Colom: Gente del Raval

Joan Colom... Raval #559 (1958-1961, vintage black–and-white print). From Joan Colom: Gente del Raval, March 9 - April 29, 2006 at Laurence Miller Gallery in New York, NY. "...Laurence Miller Gallery will present the first United States exhibition of 84 year old Barcelona photographer Joan Colom from March 9 through April 29, 2006. Seventeen of Mr. Colom’s vintage black–and-white prints will be featured. From 1958 -1961, Mr. Colom made clandestine photographs in the red light district of Barcelona, often holding his camera at waist level so as not to attract the attention of the prostitutes and their patrons in the Raval, the poorest neighborhood of the city. Working in a style similar to his contemporary Robert Frank, Colom captured the inhabitants of this neighborhood as they solicited one another, joked among themselves, and expressed a vitality that otherwise could not be captured on film."