The Biarnés Effect

This exhibition brings together the first five winning projects of the Joana Biarnés Fellowship for Young Photojournalists, established to support the professional development of emerging documentary photographers and to foster the investigation and dissemination of stories that call for urgent social reflection.

The Grant is named after the pioneering photojournalist Joana Biarnés, the first woman photojournalist in Spain. In a profession long dominated by men, Biarnés stood out for the unmistakable vitality of her images. She captured the country’s transformation from the 1960s to the 1980s, documenting Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy through photographs of natural disasters, social, political and sporting events, as well as portraits of leading cultural and entertainment figures.

Since 2014, her photographic archive has been represented by the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, which accompanied and advised the photographer during the late rediscovery of her work and its well-deserved public and institutional recognition. Following Joana’s death in 2018, and after the generous donation of her negatives by her widower, journalist Jean Michel Bamberger, the Foundation became the owner of the Joana Biarnés Archive, ensuring its continued preservation, research and public dissemination.

Biarnés wished for her legacy to contribute to strengthening the future of photojournalism in Spain. In her honour, and in collaboration with an advisory team closely connected to her during the final years of her life, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation established the Joana Biarnés Grant for Young Photojournalists in 2019.

The Grant has since become a platform supporting visual storytelling and the development of outstanding visual journalism. It enables in-depth reporting on pressing issues that often receive limited attention in mainstream media, encouraging public reflection and critical engagement.

During its first five editions, the Joana Biarnés Grant has supported projects on sexual violence, deindustrialisation and youth precarity, the impact of industrial food production, rural depopulation, and the links between Franco’s dictatorship and Spain’s desertification crisis. These are fundamental issues for contemporary public debate, demonstrating both the relevance of documentary practices and the ongoing need to support photojournalism.

The projects presented in this exhibition show that the empathy, professional rigour and ethical commitment that defined Joana Biarnés continue to inspire a new generation of photojournalists.

2025

24.05 – 31.08     Sala Muncunill, Terrassa