Ribalta, Jorge

Jorge Ribalta, who lives and works in Barcelona, specialises in the field of photography. Initially interested in exploring photographic naturalism, he later turned to a re-reading of the documentary genre. Using analogue and black-and-white, he works on large-scale projects that trace the changing landscapes, urban, rural and post-industrial, of late capitalism. Ribalta analyses cultural artefacts and the relationships between photography and institutional structures, with work located between art, politics, economics and history. Since the eighties, he has combined his photographic practice with exhibition curation and art criticism. Between 1999 and 2009, he was Head of Public Programmes at MACBA. He has written for such publications as La Vanguardia, and has been advisor to the photography collection of the publishing house Gustavo Gili, as well as editor of reference books on photography such as Indiferencia y singularidad. La fotografía en el pensamiento artístico contemporáneo (edited jointly with Glòria Picazo, MACBA, 1997 and 2003) and El movimiento de la fotografía obrera, 1926-1939 (TF editores and Museo Reina Sofía, 2011).

His first solo exhibition took place at Metrònom, Barcelona, as part of the Primavera Fotogràfica in 1988. In 1994, he was included in the New Photography 10 exhibition, organised by MoMA, New York. As a photographer, he has held solo exhibitions in Barcelona, Cáceres, Madrid and Salamanca, as well as Paris and New York.