Óscar Alijarde, Carlos Grasa, Viky Romeo, José Gracia, Marc Moya, Mari Luz Altimasveres and Virginia Navarro are the seven photographers at the heart of an initiative that brings three years of shared learning in Fundación’s photography workshops to a close. The workshops were taught by photographer Luis Simón Aranda. During April, May and June, they went out with their cameras to different locations in Zaragoza to photograph 13 families of people connected to Fundación Aspace Zaragoza.
To enable each participant to take their own photographs, various assistive products were used, including articulated arms, tripods and switches operated by hand or head. These adaptations enabled the project participants to take the photographs independently.
All of this took place with the guidance and support of photographer Luis Simón Aranda, a collaborator who teaches photography workshops for the foundation and guided the entire process, took part in every outing and advised the participants as they developed the project creatively, with the support of professionals from Fundación Aspace Zaragoza.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND WORDS ABOUT FAMILY
The “Alongside You” exhibition can be visited from September 15 to 26 at the Centro Joaquín Roncal (C/ San Braulio, 5). It will display 26 photographs selected and edited by the project participants themselves, as well as present the book documenting the experience. The photographs are accompanied by texts written by the families themselves about what the word “family” means to them, the guiding thread running through the entire project. Aspace’s photographers also contribute brief personal texts alongside their images and their portraits with the camera.
In the foreword to the book published for the exhibition, Luis Simón Aranda recalls his doubts when he first faced the challenge of teaching photography to a group of people with cerebral palsy and how that learning ultimately became mutual. Three years later, he sums up the result as follows: “There is no photograph of pity or charity here; there is art, there is perspective and there is dignity.”
The opening, on September 15, will be attended by the Government of Aragon’s director general for Family, David Sáinz Jiménez; José Ramón Auría Labayen, president of Fundación CAI; Jorge Barrachina, director of Fundación CAI; and Jesús Carlos Laiglesia, president of CERMI Aragón. The “Alongside You” exhibition is supported by Fundación CAI and can be visited at the Centro Joaquín Roncal until September 26, Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; Saturdays until 1:30 p.m.; and Monday to Saturday afternoons from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
