Women take center stage in FineArt Igualada photography festival

Photography festival FineArt Igualada kicked off its 13th edition on Friday, February 21, with women taking a central role both behind and in front of the camera.  

More than 20 photographers are exhibiting their work in the festival, the majority of whome women, while the festival also touches on various themes which revolve around femininity, gender equality, and the struggle for women's rights.  

The organization wanted to put women center stage for the event, both in terms of artists exhibited and the theme. 

Judith Prat, a photographer with an exhibition named 'Brujas' (‘Witches’ in English), explained that her exhibition talks about the "femicide" that was the witch hunt in the Pyrenees between the 15th and 17th centuries.  

"Any woman was a potential witch, and they were murdered on the basis of accusations as ridiculous as causing illnesses or having made a pact with the devil," Prat told the Catalan News Agency.  

After a lot of research done by Prat, she realized that Aragon and Catalonia were two of the areas where the most women were accused of witchcraft and murdered.  

Prat highlighted that those women have gone down in history as "old, ugly and evil women," and she feels that "who they really were has not been explained." 

"We’ve only heard the speech of their persecutors, and the story of who they were has never been told,which is why in this exhibition I try to dignify their memory and explain who they are," Prat said.  

For her exhibition, she took photographs of places where these women, accused of being witches, were murdered, framing current women who live in the area in the shots. Carmenchu Alemán, another photographer exhibited in FineArt with 'Hispania Sacra', explored the symbolic iconography of what is sacred in Spain and Portugal through its ritual representations. These are photos in black and white that "reveal the complexity of our cultural identity" and that show "a past that reaches us and that, despite its distance, decisively influences our present," Alemán explained to the Catalan News Agency. 

The festival showcases work from photographers from all over the world, with each exhibition exploring different locations. Full details can be found on the FineArt Igualada website.  

The FineArt Igualada photography festival started last Friday, February 21, and is set to last through to March 16.