OUTUMURO. LOOKS

One production of Disseny Hub Barcelona. Barcelona City Council

The exhibition «Outumuro. Looks», organized and produced by Design Hub Barcelona (DHUB) has brought together 222 photographs by the famous Spanish fashion photographer Manuel Outumuro (born in 1949). It’s a major retrospective that pays tribute for the first time to two decades (1990-2010) of his work for fashion industry. The Design Hub Barcelona (DHUB) has launched its collections of fashion photography that, in the future will expand over time by incorporating the work of other great photographers.

«Outumuro. Looks», is grouped in six thematic areas which demonstrate an extraordinaire and many-sided talent of the artist — Surroundings, Black and White, Poses and Attitudes, Portraits, Celebrities and Sequences.

The common denominator of the first section «Surroundings» is the cult of the location — grand natural spaces, chaotic urban landscapes and spectacular architectures are occupied by still or moving figures that merge with their surroundings. This background accommodates the models here in a relationship that is at times surprising in its fusion of figure and environment and in the scale established between architecture and person.

Manuel Outumuro studied graphic design at the Escola Massana in Barcelona and worked as an art director for several years, and this background is very much in evidence in a lot of his work as a photographer. This second section entitled «Black and white» presents a series of more than 20 pictures which indicate a clear graphic design. The dramatic contrast of black and white in these pictures is the result of deliberately avoiding the range of greys.

«Poses and Attitudes» — this is undoubtedly the part of the show that contains the biggest selection of photographs, almost 60 combines black and white and colour pictures. The models here are photographed in a variety of poses and attitudes, full-length shots that show the whole body from head to toe alternating with ¾ shots and shots of squatting and seated figures in a powerful and evocative series.

The section «Portraits» exhibits some pictures in which the models are very clearly aware that they are being portrayed in close-up, pictures whose inspiration comes from the great masters of classical painting and the portraits taken by the pioneers of photography.

Celebrities, it is a section devoted to a selection of 40 of Outumuro’s photographs of some of the great names of Spanish and international cinema — renowned actors such as Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Rossy de Palma, Rinko Kukuchi, Ariadna Gil, Najwa Nimri, Elsa Pataky, Elena Anaya and Marisa Paredes — top models and other personalities pose with an eye on the world of fashion.

Blade Runner, Taxi Driver, The Birds or Belle de Jour are among the great films that have inspired more than a few of Outumuro’s photo sessions. This part of the exhibition «Sequences» -last but not least- contains some photographs that reveal the influence of the icons of the cinema art on the photographer’s creation works. The Remakes part — series created by Outumuro for two editions of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Complementing the pictures in this space is the audio-visual Beyond the Look, a compilation of key sequences from films that have inspired the photographer, especially created for the exhibition by filmmaker Isabel Coixet.

The Design Hub Barcelona (DHUB) is the centre of reference for design in Barcelona. It is the new headquarters of the city’s leading design institutions and will concentrate the heritage and activities of this discipline in one place to enhance their visibility and impact in the local and international spheres.

During this year the collections from the Museums of Decorative Arts, Ceramics, Textiles and Fashion and Graphic Arts will be installed in the new premises that will open to the public in spring 2014.

The master class of the photographer is on March 7th at 7 p. m. in MAMM (Ostozhenka str., 16).
The entrance is free. Please register at mk@mdf.ru.