The exhibition, curated by Silvia Omedes (Photographic Social Vision Foundation), celebrates the generous donation of Isabel Azkarate’s archive, comprising more than 175,000 objects, including negatives and slides, cameras, catalogues and original press publications. Her collection is now in the custody of the Kutxa Fundazioa Fototeka to ensure its future conservation, study and dissemination.

This exhibition, produced entirely by Kutxa Fundazioa, which presents almost 300 copies of snapshots, many of them unpublished, taken by Isabel Azkarate between 1978 and 2006. The occasion warranted particular effort in order to recognise the work of a figure considered to be the first woman photojournalist in the Basque Country. A retrospective that showcases a major archive in terms of both the quantity and quality of its images, and which we hope will inspire citizens and researchers to consult in order to provide alternative visual readings and interpretations of our recent history.

The exhibition has been divided into 7 thematic sections:

Barcelona

This section features Isabel Azkarate’s earliest photos, taken in Barcelona in 1978-1979. She had moved there to study at the Centre Internacional de Fotografia de Barcelona (CIFB). Her first series at the Els Encants flea market served as a declaration of intentions and is merely the beginning of intense work to record all different lifestyles as part of an admirable exercise of empathy.

During this period, she came into contact with creators from Catalonia’s artistic movement, such as Fernando Amat, Xavier Mariscal and Bigas Luna, who opened the doors for her first professional assignments. One of these was to take the stills for the film Mater Amatísima (1980) and another a photographic report on New York City for the magazine Dunia, which became her first publication and the start of her professional career.

The American experience

On the advice of the CFIB director, Isabel moved to Rochester (New York) in 1980 to enrol in the renowned Visual Studies Workshops, where she took classes given by Nathan Lyons. She also attended other workshops at the New School and the International Center of Photography (ICP) and focused her training on street photography. The well-known photographer Lisette Model encouraged Isabel to produce several reportages in the city.

These workshops encouraged her curiosity and drove her to go out into the streets to observe and capture people in their surroundings, experimenting with the technique of colour developing or making bichromate gums. New York was undoubtedly a perfect stimulus for a woman like Isabel Azkarate, as she had always been interested in questioning the established order and examining the various identities of the people she met along the way.

Documenting the news

Isabel Azkarate returned to San Sebastián in September 1981, ready to receive assignments and work for the media. It was a time of maximum tension in the Basque Country: the terrorism of ETA and GAL, the dismantling of the industrial fabric, fierce social conflicts and general strikes, rising drug use among young people; although at the same time, a counterculture movement was developing that celebrated identity and freedom of expression. Against this backdrop, she was the first and only woman – among many male photographers – to report for La Voz de Euskadi on all kinds of topics and news between 1983 and 1985, displaying a firm commitment to the profession.

The Azkarate Collection, now owned by Kutxa Fundazioa, brings together a wide range of subjects and events that marked Basque current affairs, particularly in the city of San Sebastián. This makes it especially valuable for researching and disseminating the history of the Basque Country.

In 1984, she produced a report in Peru, accompanying José Usoz, on the activity of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).

Life in the Basque Country

Isabel Azkarate was the official photographer for Gipuzkoa Provincial Council between 1985 and 2009, which meant that she was able to attend numerous events, presentations and inaugurations with various politicians and influential people in Basque social life, as well as to travel around the Basque Country.

At the same time, she looked for occasions to enjoy photography in her free time. Throughout her life, her travels and stays with family or friends in the heart of the Basque Country would be a way of approaching reality and the apparent tranquillity of rural life. She portrayed many people she came across and was attracted to, photographing them with a great deal of respect and intimacy.

Circus: Without mask or artifice

During her time in New York, Isabel came across a family circus that opened up a whole new suggestive universe for her to explore. What interested her was not the spectacle or the artistic skills of the protagonists, but in being able to approach a new gallery of atypical, abnormal characters

Among the wagons, she found the perfect atmosphere, distance and light to photograph her new heroes and heroines: artists with open, transparent eyes who allowed themselves to be photographed at the very moment when they were stripped of their character.

The author was enriching her visual catalogue of more authentic beings she admired so much.

Art and part

Her photographic collection also includes an extensive album of portraits of the most important artists of contemporary Basque culture, some of the most intimate and carefree of which can be seen in this retrospective. As a great art lover and avid consumer of all kinds of artistic events, she follows the social and cultural life of San Sebastián from the front row.

Her archive contains an extensive catalogue of artists who are in fact close friends, with whom Isabel shares her life, challenges, weekends and a great deal of trust and intimacy.

She was the official photographer of the San Sebastián International Film Festival for more than two decades (since 1983), and it was here that she produced one of her most emblematic photographic series, which has been widely acclaimed in recent years: the last portraits of the American film diva Bette Davis.

A life, a journey