‘La Barcelona de Pilar Aymerich’, soul and memory of the city

Pilar Aymerich (Barcelona, 1943) had often said that she would never write a memoir, because her memories were in her photographic work. However, this book transcends photographic retrospective and comes very close to an authentic memoir of what the photographer saw and experienced between the late sixties and the early eighties. These, she tells us, were the years that witnessed the “awakening of the city”. 

Pilar Aymerich will be 80 years old this December, and this book, co-published with Barcelona City Council, is not the only celebration of her work. In autumn 2024, the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid (until 7 January) and the Centre d’Art Tecla Sala in Hospitalet will be presenting a rich retrospective of her work, after she won the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s National Photography Prize in 2021.

Her photographs of the feminist demonstrations of the 1970s are iconic, and recognised by several generations, as are the portraits that have immortalised major cultural figures here in Catalonia: Mercè Rodoreda, Josep Pla, Ovidi Montllor, Joan Fuster, and above all Maria Aurèlia Capmany and Montserrat Roig, two writers who were such a key part of her life – companions, friends, and almost family. 

The book will be presented on Thursday 21 December at 6 pm in the Sala Moragues at the Born Culture and Memory Centre, (Plaça Comercial, 12). Pilar Aymerich, photographer and author of the book, Laura Terré, historian of photography, and Jordi Amat, writer and curator of the “Gent de Barcelona” collection, will all be taking part.