Cristóbal Hara has been awarded the National Photography Prize, corresponding to the year 2022, as proposed by the jury. The prize, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, is endowed with 30,000 euros.

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The jury recognised Cristóbal Hara “for the unique contribution that his trajectory represents, with a singular language, and for the influence that his work has on the Spanish photographic imaginary, with a production in which painting, literature and popular culture resonate, where the frontiers that separate document from fiction are diluted. Many present-day photographers claim to be heirs to his work, which he continues to tirelessly renew”.

Biography
Cristóbal Hara, born in Madrid in 1946, studied law and business management in Madrid, Hamburg and Munich. He began to devote himself to photography in 1969 in London, influenced by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. His work was first shown in the touring exhibition ‘Three Photographers’, organised by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1974. In those years he collaborated with agencies such as John Hillelson (London), Viva (Paris) and Cover (Madrid).

Although he had only worked in black and white, from 1985 he began to use colour exclusively, a change that allowed him to practice photojournalism and find his own photographic language, evolving towards a direction in which the frontier between reality and fiction was blurred.

His photographs have been published in magazines such as Aperture, Camera, Creative Camera, DU, Photovisión and European Photography; as well as in the magazines of El País, La Vanguardia and El Semanal.

His work can be found, among others, in the collections of institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He has published numerous volumes such as ‘4 cosas de España’; ‘Vanitas, utrera y Murcia’, ‘PHotoBolsillo’ and ‘Contranatura’.