2012 Infinity Award: Publication

The Worker Photography Movement [1926–1939] forms part of the research process undertaken for the exhibition A Hard, Merciless Light at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina from April to August 2011. The volume is designed to reconstruct amateur, proletarian documentary practices during the interwar period—a chapter that remains largely unexplored in the history of photography. The worker photography movement must be understood in the context of the documentary practices in film and photography that emerged on an international scale towards 1930. The movement’s main goal was to represent the economic crisis and its social effects, particularly among the emerging popular classes in the era of democracy and mass communication. This volume is a primary reference work on the subject and features extraordinary photographers including Brassaï (Gyula Halasz), Hans Bresler, Robert Capa, André Kértesz, Chim (David Seymour), and Gerda Taro. A key 21st century art institution, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is a place for research, experimentation, reflection, and the creation of critical thought. Its activities and programs aim to strengthen the role of the museum as a generator of ideas on contemporary art and on new forms of cultural production, making it a platform for experimentation and innovation. Its holdings consist of 20,000 works including Picasso's Guernica.