HARA, Cristóbal - Spanish Colour. 1985-2020

Background information, personal statement by Spanish photographer Cristóbal HARA

"Perhaps the two main factors that allowed me to definitely cross over to colour, in 1985, were the realization that I could find guidance in the great tradition of Spanish painting, and the decision to have the entire image in focus; the latter forced me to use a shorter focal length (28mm) than I normally used and it made it necessary to widen the field of vision on which I was working. I no longer reacted to a situation that was in front of me, but rather to the visual rhythms of a situation in which I was immersed. So easy, and yet so complicated.
I had been working for 17 years in black and white when I started working exclusively in colour. I was then 39 years old. Suddenly I felt very comfortable, liberated and euphoric. The colours dazzled and overwhelmed me, they reacted with each other, everything vibrated and I felt enveloped by colour and its possibilities. The intensity of this first experience progressively declined but I regained the enthusiasm and dedication that I had almost lost after so many years of frustration." (Cristóbal Hara, in: Spanish Colour 1985-2020, Plague, 2021)

About the Spanish photographer, Cristóbal HARA (*1946 in Madrid)

Photo books by Cristóbal HARA