Artists

A Catalan photojournalist associated with counterculture and photographic realism. She studied graphic design at the Massana School (Centre d'Art i Disseny) and later at the Elisava School (Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona). During her studies, she was invited by Interviú magazine to cover a squatted apartment in Barcelona; from that moment on, she discovered her calling in photography and definitively broke away from design. In her own words, photography allowed her to “show everything the dictatorship didn’t want to see.” After photographing Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella in 1975, in images that sought to make the invisible visible by depicting the poverty and marginalization of the Raval, she was invited by the Galician College of Architects to document the housing project designed by César Portela and Pascuala Campos in the settlement of O Vao (Pontevedra), built to house Romani families. But Turbau’s stay in Galicia would end up lasting four years, and she took up residence in Santiago de Compostela in 1976. Of particular importance is the body of photographic work the artist produced between 1975 and 1979, which sparked great interest within the Spanish art scene.In this way, Anna Turbau became a witness to the new protest movements—both union-led and assembly-based—that were beginning to emerge during that era of profound political, social, and economic change marked by the Transition. Her archive of nearly ten thousand negatives documents, with a personal aesthetic, the demonstrations in support of Galicia’s Statute of Autonomy, the protests against the construction of the AP-9 highway, the tragedy of the Marbel shipwreck, and the first edition of the Ortigueira Festival, among other events. In 2017, the anthology *Anna Turbau. Galicia, 1975–1979*, chronicling her time in Galicia, was published by the Consello da Cultura Galega. The book accompanied the exhibition of the same name and features a magnificent selection of photographs drawn from the more than 10,000 negatives that the photographer chose to deposit with the Consello.

Among his many solo and group exhibitions, the following are particularly noteworthy: “Jazz Photographs (9th Barcelona Jazz Festival).” Sala Aixelà, Barcelona, 1975; “Galicia.” Sargadelos Gallery, Santiago de Compostela, 1979; “Jazz for Five Instruments.” Espai Alternatiu of the Cercle Cultural de la Caixa de Pensions. Granollers, 1987; “5 Years of Press Photography in Spain: 1975–1980.” Redor-Canon Gallery, 1980; “Muller.” Quiosco Alfonso. La Coruña, 1980; FotoPres 83–94. La Caixa. Barcelona / Madrid, 1983–1984; “Spain After Franco.” VHS-Zentrum. Freiburg, Germany, 1986; “Working Women.” Casa da Cultura. Vigo, 1989; “Santiago, A Brief Natural History. Anna Turbau.” Pazo de Fonseca (USC). Santiago de Compostela, 1993. [Can Ametller, Molins de Rei, 1995 / University of Trier (Germany), 1997 / Sala de Collado. Caja Duero, Soria, 1998.]; “Landscapes of Soria.” Espai de Fotografía Frances Català-Roca. Barcelona, 1994. [Sala Charly Privat, Figueres, 1995.]; “Claus des dones.” Francesca Bonnemaison Women’s Cultural Center. Barcelona, 2009; “Women of Calatañazor.” Casa del Parque del Sabinar. Muriel de la Fuente (Soria), 2011; “Galicia, the Transition of the 1970s.” Golferichs Civic Center. Barcelona, 2012; “So Far, So Close. Photographic Documentary in the 1970s" (Koldo Chamorro, Cristina García Rodero, Cristóbal Hara, Fernando Herráez, Anna Turbau, and Ramón Zabalza). PhotoEspaña. Botanical Garden, Madrid, 2014 (Foto Colectania Foundation, Barcelona, 2014 / San Telmo Museum, 2015.]; “Repetition and Difference: Typologies in Spanish Photography.” Sala San Benito. Valladolid City Hall, 2016; “The Intimacy of the Image.” Pazo de Fonseca. Santiago de Compostela, 2017. [Municipal Exhibition Palace of La Coruña, 2018 / Pazo da Cultura in Pontevedra, 2019.] Her work is included in collections such as the Reina Sofía National Art Museum, CGAC (Galician Center for Contemporary Art), the National Photography Collection of Catalonia, the Círculo de Bellas Artes Collection in Madrid, and the Belondrade Foundation Collection. She has been represented by the gallery since 2025, the year her work was first shown at ARCOmadrid and Paris Photo at the Nordés booth. Her archive is managed by the Fundació Photographic Social Vision in Barcelona, to whom we extend our gratitude for their collaboration.