1925 — 2003
Born 1925 near Valencia, Gabriél Cualladó described himself as an amateur photographer. With a Capta camera he shot his first-born child and made his friends his earliest subjects. Self-taught, Cualladó wanted to break with tradition when it came to framing and composition, and was at the forefront of a movement to change the face of photography in Spain during the second half of the twentieth century. In Franco's postwar Spain, Cualladó captured moments of everyday life, often shooting family and friends — in addition to strangers — to create a body of work that combined intimacy with social documentary. In 1994 he was awarded the National Photography Prize by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Cualladó died in 2003, in Madrid. Much of his work is today housed at the IVAM in Valencia.
