Marcel Giró
Badalona, Spain, 1913 – Barcelona, Spain, 2011
Marcel Giró was born in Badalona (Barcelona, Spain) the son of a textile industrialist. From a very young age he became an aficionado of mountaineering and photography. In 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Republican Army. Disappointed with the constant clashes between the different factions that fought against Franco, he decided to go into exile in France and crosses the Pyrenees on foot. From France he emigrated to Colombia and later to Brazil, in the late 1940s.
His vocation for photography was reborn in São Paulo. He became one of the most important members of Escola Paulista de Fotografia (São Paulo Photography School), which originated from Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante. His work was characterized by the interpretation of the abstract forms he would find in his surroundings and by experimentation with light and shadow, following the movement of modern photography. Giró is quoted more than once in the seminal book Fotografia Moderna no Brasil by Helouise Costa.
The Giró Studio in São Paulo became one of the pioneers in advertising photography in Brazil.
When his wife Palmira passed away he closed his studio in São Paulo and went back to Catalonia. He abandoned his activity as artistic photographer. In his last years of life he dedicated to travelling around the world.
He died at the age of 98 in Mirasol (Barcelona).
His photographs have been included in the collections of Itaú Cultural, Tate Modern of London, Masp – Museu de Arte de São Paulo, and MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art.
selected works
Vintage photographs and limited editions. Complete catalog and prices available on request via e-mail: contato@isabelamado.com.br