Miquel Muñoz is the winner of the twenty-second Young Photographers of Catalonia Award

The Diputació de Girona, through INSPAI, Image Center, has chosen the photographic project Barcelona, a theme park, by Miquel Muñoz, as the winner of the twenty-twelfth edition of the Young Photographers Award of Catalonia.

The project Barcelona, a theme park is a photographic report that aims to question the model of tourism that the city of Barcelona has adopted, through the exhibition of those scenes, situations or attitudes that represent the model of tourism that a good part of the Barcelona population rejects.

In this edition of the Young Photographers of Catalonia Award, the jury was formed by the head of INSPAI, Center for the Image of the Provincial Government of Girona, Natàlia Navarro; the art historian and curator Mercè Rigat, and the photographers Marta Negre, doctor of fine arts from the University of Barcelona and associate professor of the Department of Visual Arts and Design of this University, and Dani Duch, photojournalist of La Vanguardia . As a novelty, the young winner of the last edition, Pau de la Calle, freelance photojournalist, has joined the jury.

The jury has given special consideration to the quality of the images, the treatment of color, the interest of the speech and the controversial subject matter, which highlights the disadvantages of mass tourism that the city of Barcelona suffers from.

The award is endowed with 1,250 euros and, as established in the call, INSPAI, the Image Center of the Provincial Government of Girona, promoter of the Young Photographers of Catalonia Award, will schedule an exhibition with the 36 images of the winning project, will publish a catalog and present it next October at the House of Culture of the Diputació de Girona. Subsequently, the exhibition will be integrated into the County Council's traveling exhibitions program to offer it to all Girona municipalities that request it.

The exhibition will also be part of photographic contests and festivals: the Off Festival, in Perpignan; the Fine Art Festival, in Igualada; the Olot Biennial - Photography; the Mirades Festival, in Torroella de Montgrí, or the Mitgeres Festival in Valls, among others. At the same time, the exhibition can be seen on the INSPAI website: Photography competition Premi Joves Fotografs Catalunya | INSPIRATION​

A novelty this year is the incorporation of a new festival in collaboration with this award, the Menorca Doc Fest, of documentary film and photography, which has been taking place in Menorca for the past five editions. This festival offers workshops, exhibitions, presentations of photographic projects and conferences, and it is planned that one of the winners of one of the editions of the Young Photographers Award will participate with the presentation of his project within the framework of the festival, and that, as an exchange, a photographer from the Islands participates in the INSPAI Conference Series next autumn.

Miquel Muñoz Mallol

Miquel Muñoz is a Catalan photojournalist who publishes in several national media, as well as making documentary reports on social issues. He has studied a degree in communication and cultural industries (UB), a master's degree in international studies on power, media and diversity (UPF), and a postgraduate degree in documentary photography and photojournalism (IEFC). His relationship with photography began in adolescence. Since then, he has learned about different photographic genres (landscape, portrait, etc.) while also working on social issues. This background has converged in his vocation: photojournalism.

His work has been exhibited at the OFF Perpignan 2023 Festival, the Transhumant Festival and the Festiva Fine Art, among others. In addition, he has been awarded at Miravisions 2023 and won the grant from the "Connecta't" program of the Catalan Youth Agency and the Carnet Jove. He has also published photographs in media such as the newspapers Ara and ABC, the digital newspaper El Nacional, Climática and Arrels, among others.

Photographer's website: Miquel Muñoz (miquelmm.com)

The Premi Joves Fotograf(e)s de Catalunya is a project started by INSPAI that was born in 2001 with the desire to promote artistic and documentary photography, and, at the same time, to support the creation and stimulate photographers to develop projects, as well as promote the work of audiovisual creators. With this program it is possible, on the one hand, to create a meeting space for the work of photographers and to disseminate it, to encourage photographic creation and to bring photography closer to the general public from all sides, and, on the another, to offer the town councils a cultural proposal through a traveling exhibition and the corresponding catalogue.