INSPAI exhibits 'Identitats valides', by Isaac Flores, at the Off Festival in Perpignan

For the twentieth consecutive year, the Diputació de Girona, through INSPAI, Image Center, is participating these days in the Off Festival in Perpignan, as part of the Visa pour l'Image international photojournalism contest. It does so with the exhibition Identitats valides, by the photographer Isaac Flores, winner of the nineteenth edition of the Premi Joves Fotograf(e)s de Catalunya.

The exhibition, which opened this weekend and can be visited until September 23 at the Perpignan Médiathèque, reflects the queer scene in Barcelona. It is composed of images from 2018 to 2020, focused on the art of the drag queen , transformation and sexual dissent.

The project took shape spontaneously, with Isaac Flores carrying his analog camera on his nightly outings in Barcelona's Raval and Eixample neighborhoods. There, he began to capture the scenes and people that make up the project. Later, he took outdoor photo sessions, with natural light, applying the methodology of classic photography, fashion photography and combining different formats (digital, analogue and polaroid).

Identitats valides is a complaint and a call for attention against the intolerance and hatred suffered by people from the LGTBIQ+ group because of the way they are, love and express themselves. You can visit the interactive exhibition at the following link: https://www.ddgi.cat/inspai/exposicions-interactives/tjoves/ 

Born in Barcelona (1994), Isaac Flores grew up in Hospitalet de Llobregat, the town where he lives. At a young age, he showed great interest in the visual arts and, at the age of 18, acquired his first camera. Shortly after, he enrolled in a specialization course in fashion photography at the Institut d'Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya and, after completing the course, developed his photographic style independently and self-taught.

INSPAI at the Off Festival

The Off Festival was born twenty-nine years ago as an initiative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Eastern Pyrenees. It is a parallel exhibition to the Visa pour l'image - in fact, it coincides in dates -, also of high quality, where young and amateur photographers tend to participate. This year, it takes place until September 16 and is presented under the motto "Un autre regard sur le monde". The program can be consulted on the official website of the festival: Festival OFF Perpignan 2023 (festivaloff-perpignan.fr) .

During all these years, INSPAI has shown some of the projects it has worked on, with the aim of promoting current and contemporary photography: "Srebrenica, the silence of memory", by photographers Miquel and Isaac Ruiz; The voices of women: El Salvador , by Tonyi Mateos; Portraits of memory , by Elisabeth Serra; Kaolack , by Joel López, which won the II International Biennial of Photography; Album of families, by Mattia Insolera and Catalina Gayà; Abandoned places, by Alicia Rius; Press photo , by Dani Duch; The end of days , by Yurian Quintanas; Another way of capturing the world: 1979-2013, by Miquel Ruiz; Polvorins , by Carles Palacio; Mentawai: progress or regression , by Marina Calahorra; Photojournalism in the rear (1936-1939). Rafael Vilarrubias, by photographer Rafael Vilarrubias; Nparanpare, by Daniel Casanovas; Anachronisms: 1978-2009 , by Pep Iglésias; The Southern border, in the shadow of the North , by Martí Albesa, and last year, The answer, by Oriol Roura.