DC.es | A gaze at Washington, DC by five Spanish photographers

This is an examination of the world’s political capital, Washington, D.C., by five Spanish photographers who went there to develop a photographic project that not only speaks about the city but also sheds light on themselves.

Five photographers belonging to the same generation, all former grant holders from the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome, were invited by the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C. to provide a showcase for cutting-edge Spanish photography, while also celebrating the 150 years of the Academy’s existence.

The urban gaze of Juan Baraja, who takes a trip down the city’s pulsating main thoroughfare, rubs shoulders with the reflection on identity by Jesús Madriñán, via individual portraits that are also collective. Taking nature as her starting point, Paula Anta delves into subjects like uprooting and what it means to be human, while Rosell Meseguer assembles an herbarium that reveals Washington, D.C. through its plants, and Nicolás Combarro questions the meaning and context of its monuments and the reasons for their existence.

Five highly personal and evocative gazes at a city known more for what it symbolizes than what it is. Five Spanish visions in the heart of North America.