Colita, the great chronicler of Barcelona in the 60s and 70s Through original images, she died at the age of 83 on the last day of 2023 surrounded by her loved ones and without suffering, after undergoing surgery due to peritonitis. Her funeral will be held tomorrow at the Les Corts Mortuary this Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., although the funeral chapel will be open from 11 in the morning.
Born in Barcelona as Isabel Steva Hernandez – although she joked that only the Treasury and the police called her that – Colita went to Paris when she was young to study French Civilization at the Sorbonne University. Upon her return he drank in the trade with the photographers, and then friends, Oriol Maspons, Julio Ubiña and Xavier Miserachs, with whom she worked in 1961 as a laboratory technician and stylist. However, She claimed Paco Revés, the discoverer of La Chunga, as her true teacher. It was her who introduced her to photography and gave her her first paid job (50 pesetas per photo). That first assignment, which consisted of taking photos of the gypsies who appeared in the figuration of ‘Los Tarantos’ (1963), by Francisco Rovira Beleta, meant for her the discovery of flamenco and her contact with the dancer. Carmen Amaya, the second person who paid him for his photos. She went to Madrid for two years, with the promotion of Antonio Gades and La Chunga, where he created the book ‘Lights and shadows of flamenco’ (1975).
Back to Barcelona, Colita was the photographer of the intellectuals and artists of the ‘gauche divine’ (on which he mounted, in 1971, an exhibition sponsored by Boccaccio and the promoter Oriol Regàs which was closed down by the police two days later), from the progressive and anti-Franco Barcelona School of Cinema (with Vicente Aranda, Jaime Camino, Jacinto Esteva, Carlos Durán…) and the Nova Cançó (with the Edigsa record company and with Guillermina Motta, Núria Feliu or Serrat). She diversified in the press, working as a “journalist photographer”, as she liked to define herself, in media such as Tele/expres, Fotogramas, Interviú and Cuadernos para el Diálogo, among others.
Freedom by flag
Through your camera’s viewfinder too portrayed from the Barcelona of Chinatown to that of the shanties. And she expressed from the fight for rights and freedoms in the democratic transition to the transformation of the Olympic Barcelona. The nights of the Venus Dome where he photographed Christa Leem interested him as much as the creation of the first Professional Association of Photographers in our country, in which he got involved to defend the rights of the group.
A great defender of freedom in capital letters, feminist and left-wing, Colita stood out not only as a photography professional, but also for her character, her irony, her intelligence, her coherence and her dignity. She has been the only creator who has rejected the National Photography Award, endowed with 30,000 euros. It happened in 2014. “The situation of culture and education in Spain is sad,” he argued then in a letter sent to the PP minister. “Mr. Wert, I don’t feel like being in the photo with you,” added the photographer, who received all kinds of congratulations for an attitude in line with her ideas but detrimental to her economic interests.
The black and white photographs of his early days challenged established norms. With a critical and mocking gaze, Colita was able to capture all the vitality and diversity of Barcelona in the 60s and 70s, a time when art and provocation were a formidable vehicle to confront Franco’s censorship and the Catholic Church. Her last book was the reissue, by Barcelona City Council in 2021, of ‘Anti-feminine’, a feminist work with texts Maria Aurèlia Capmany which in 1977 was censored.
Great portraitist
Tenacious and self-taught, among his portraits include great artists such as Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí, Montserrat Caballé, Rafael Alberti, QuinoTerenci Moix, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Mario Vargas Llosa, Camilo José Cela, Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Goytisolo, Ana María Matute, María del Mar Bonet, Lluís Llach, Pau Riba, Ovidi Montllor, Raimon, Jaume Sisa and Lola Flores. “Portrait is what I like the most,” she confessed in an interview. “People relax with me, because they know that I play in their favor, I don’t take advantage of them, I always make the person I photograph fun, friendly, interesting and pretty and, if I can, all at the same time. Although if it’s a commission and it’s a person I don’t like, I’ll go after them, because you portray people as you think they are.”
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Colita leaves behind her an immense legacy, a large archive that can be consulted as a posthumous tribute. The more than 50 books that she published and the more than 40 exhibitions that have been dedicated to her show the talent of this Barcelona artist whose work is also part of the collections of the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya (MNAC) and the Museo Nacional Centro de Queen Sofia Art.
The photographer received important distinctions throughout her career, including the Medal for Artistic Merit from the Barcelona City Council and the Creu de Sant Jordi of the Generalitat of Catalonia. But the last one has been one of the ones that made him most excited: the tribute that he received at the Col·legi de Periodistes recently when they awarded him their highest distinction, the prize Journalist Office 2023 to his magnificent career. At the event, held in November, “her exemplary dedication to women’s rights and gender equality” was highlighted in reference, among others, to her work as director of photography in the magazine ‘Vindicación Feminist’. Many photographers from other generations for whom Colita is a reference, supported her. Colita has died but her legacy remains.