By surprise, without knowing what he had been prepared, because it was not announced, the photographer Pablo Juliá received the Friday a simple and emotional tribute at the Meetings Photo of Gijón, which met its FIFTEENTH edition. Julia (Cadiz, 1949), he worked between 1979 and 2007 for THE COUNTRY, first as contributor and later participated in the creation of the delegation of this journal in Andalusia, where he became its head of Photography. He left journalism after being appointed director of the Andalusian Centre of Photography (CAF), Almeria, by his predecessor, Manuel Falces. There he served until the summer of 2016. The Friday, almost at the other end of the Peninsula, was the recognition of the Encounters gijoneses and colleagues such as Miguel Oriola, Eduardo Momeñe, Miguel Trillo, Ricky Dávila and Paco Junquera.

“to be Able to play with the photography as it is a homage,” said an excited Julia, who go through your files to select the images that will walk your path in an exhibition that prepares to march on the Provincial council of Cadiz. “Even though you’re retired, a photographer looks at the stains, the walls, the people and sees the pictures,” he added. The organizer of the Meetings, Esther Master, noted Julia not only his work as a photojournalist, but “their support of many Spanish colleagues from the CAF, so that they could expose, and to the young people starting in the office with their advice and experience”, as happens these days in the city of asturias.

Photojournalist of the Transition, Julia is always remembered by the famous photo of the tortilla, although she neither pressed the shutter button to take that picture, nor was there a tortilla to eat. That snapshot, in 1974, he portrayed in a few pine forests of La Puebla del Río (Seville) to members of the PSOE in Andalusia, then in the underground. Some of the photographed star in spain’s political life shortly after: Felipe González, Alfonso Guerra, Manuel Chaves… Julia has told numerous times that he placed the camera, adjusted the aperture, distance… and he said to Manuel in the Valley (that would be the mayor of Seville) that would trigger. In the image exits the own Supertotobet Julia, as he recalled, “there was no tortilla, but a box of beers that had Felipe González, and a few oranges.” This famous photo, returned to the present in the current electoral campaign of andalusia, when the candidate of the PP, Juan Manuel Moreno, is portrayed with a copy of that image, claiming that spirit of renewal.

Account Julia that their first photos made with a Yashica that left a cure in the school, although at that time what he really liked was watching movies. Self-taught, was active in the underground during the franco years, working in the newspaper The Socialist. He then moved to other media, including THE COUNTRY, where he organized the delegation in Andalusia in 1983. However, today it’s like little “spot graphics” that you see in the newspapers. “All of them look the same, is that it is very expensive to send photographers to the sites, the photojournalism is dying”. Julia is no stranger to social networks, especially active on Facebook, where you upload your black and white photos of a Spain that is far away, because he wants to “count well the time, to make memory of this history.”

The Meetings of Gijón, organized with support of the Ministry of Culture and the ministry of Education of the Principality of Asturias, they have a claim on this occasion, “the complicity between seasoned photographers and more young people,” stresses Master. Among the first, Ricky Dávila and Miguel Oriola, exhibiting work in the Barjola Museum until January 31. Among the latter, Jorge Fuembuena, Elena Plaza and Paco Torres. Saturday, 24, is the shift, in the Laboral City of Culture, for conferences. In addition, Dávila, show their pictures and explain their work, Dionisio González, Joan Fontcuberta and Miguel Trillo.

As is usual in this event, which will conclude on Sunday, may 25, there are also presentations of books, workshops, viewings of portfolios and, as a novelty, held the Meeting Photobook, in which amateurs and professionals can find flush mount books of their favorite authors.