About

Bio

Laia Abril (1986) is a documentary photographer raised in Barcelona. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and studied photography through different workshops and master classes, including at the ICP in New York City.

 

She began working on documentary projects in the Balkans, covering the events such as the 13th Funeral of Srebrenica and the Independence of Kosova, first for a Spanish NGO and then for Spanish newspapers. At the same time she was combining photography with her communication career as the Press Coordinator for the exhibition ‘World Press Photo 08’ in Barcelona.

 

In 2009 and 2010 she was a finalist of the Ian Parry Scholarship, participating in the exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery in London both years, first with her project on the young lesbian community in Brooklyn, and then with the project ‘The Last Cabaret’ about a porno sex club in Barcelona. Most recently she was nominated at the Joop Swart Masterclass.

 

She has published in different magazines such as D Repubblica, Ojo de Pez, Le Monde Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, FT Magazine, PDN, GQ, Burn Magazine, Vanity Fair or COLORS Magazine where she is a member of the editorial team since she enrolled at FABRICA – the artists residency of the Benetton research centre in Italy –  in 2009.

 

Her work has been exhibited and appraised mostly in Italy, Spain and London. In 2010 she joined the agency Reportage by Getty as an emerging talent and participated as an emergent photographer at Plat(t)form PhotoMuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. Her last multimedia ‘A Bad Day’ has been shown at the New York Photo Festival 2011, 3rd Lumix PhotoFestival in Hanover, 2012 Sarajevo Winter Festival among many others and recently she has been called to participate at the Ojo de Pez PhotoMeeting in Barcelona.

 

Her photography tells intimate stories and raises uneasy realities related with femininity in modern times. She uses to convey that subtle message, an insider and warm approach to the subjects and combines strict photography with other multimedia tools as video and design.

 

For the last two years she is being working in a long-term project about eating disorders that opens a new aesthetical and brave path in her the standard ways of approaching the disease, avoiding stereotypes and relish.

 

Currently she is working as a staff photographer, blogger and Associate Picture Editor for COLORS Magazine combining her freelance career and keeping developing her personal project.

 

*For more info download CV PDF (coming soon).

Exhibitions

  • ‘A Bad Day’ Multimedia exhibited at the 3rd Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism, Hannover, Germany –Jun 2012–
  • ‘A Bad Day’ Multimedia exhibited at the Sarajevo Winter Festival, ‘Sarajevska Zima′, Bosnia & Hercegovina –Feb 2012–
  • ‘A Bad Day’ Multimedia exhibited at the New York Photo Festival 2011 displayed in the DAC (Dumbo Art Center).
    New York, USA –May 2011–
  • Collective Exhibition ‘Finalist Ian Parry Award’ exhibiting ‘Last Cabaret’ in the Getty Gallery.
    London, UK –August 2010–
  • Collective Exhibition ‘Domestic’, exhibiting ‘Femme Love’ as a book, in Caja Madrid.
    Barcelona, Spain –April/June 2010–
  • ’6×6’ Exhibition with the work ‘Femme Love’ in Studio la Città, in a season with: Olivia Arthur, Kitra Cahana, Liz Hingley, Jennifer Osborne and Leonie Purchas.
    Verona, Italy –November 09/February 2010–
  • Collective Exhibition ‘Finalist Ian Parry Award’ exhibiting ‘Femme Love’ in the Getty Gallery.
    London, UK –August 2009–
  • Collective Projection ‘Street Photo’ in Studio 304.
    Bushwick, NY –April 2009–
  • Collective Projection ‘Street Photo’ in CCCB.
    Barcelona, Spain –November 2008–

Awards

  • Multimedia Selected (by the pre-jury) 3rd Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism, Hannover, 2012.
  • Scholarship of the Albarracín Seminari ‘Photography and Journalism’, 2010, Spain.
  • Selected for the Final of the Prix ANI (Association Nationale des Iconographes), 2010, Perpignan, France.
  • Finalist Ian Parry Award 2010, London, UK.
  • FABRICA Schoolarship in Photography Department, 2009 and 2010, Treviso, Italy.
  • Finalist Ian Parry Award 2009, London, UK.
  • Internship of ‘Emergent photojournalists’, 2008 in Gijón, Spain.
  • Finalist scholarship of the Albarracín Seminari ‘Photography and Journalism’, 2007, Spain.

Publications

  • Burn Magazine, ‘A Bad Day’, May 2012.
  • M Le Monde Magazine, ‘Venezia’, May 2012.
  • Finantial Times, ‘Jordi Savall’, May 2012.
  • M Le Monde Magazine, ‘Carte Blanche’, December, 2012.
  • Colors Magazine #82 Shit issue, November, 2011.
  • D Repubblica Magazine #757, Gay Treviso, September 2011.
  • Spectrum Sunday Times, ‘A Bad Day’ Multimedia, April 2011.
  • D Repubblica Magazine #731, ‘A Bad Day’, February 2011.
  • Sport Weekly Magazine, December 2010.
  • Colors Magazine #78 Dance issue, September 2010.
  • Spectrum Sunday Times, ‘Last Cabaret’, August 2010.
  • Ojo de Pez #19, ‘Femme Love’, January 2010.
  • Colors Magazine #77 The Sea, I’ve Never Seen the Sea & Blind Captain, March 2010.

Contact

She is based between Barcelona and eventually Treviso (30′ from Venice).

She can be contacted for any assignments worldwide
Spain +34 646 17 06 97
Italy +39 392 79 32 690
hello@laiaabril.com

Skype laia.abril

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