Galician photographer Vari Caramés has won Spain’s 2026 National Photography Prize, worth €30,000. The jury cited his contribution to artistic photography and his role in renewing Galician culture since the 1980s.
Spain’s Ministry of Culture announced the award on 13 October, after a jury meeting held the same day. The prize, Spain’s top photography award, carries €30,000.
The jury cited the continued relevance of Caramés’s work and its contemporary significance. It recognised his contribution to artistic photography and his role in the renewal of Galician culture since the 1980s. The citation also pointed to his visual poetics: stains and reflections, alongside his characteristic blurring, push photography toward pictorial abstraction.
Ordinary scenes take on an unfamiliar cast in Caramés’s images. The sea and harbours recur, as do railway stations and streets. People pausing in daily life appear throughout his work, which favors suggestion over literal description. The Ministry’s citation said his photographs transform the everyday into something unusual and leave viewers room to interpret what they see.
Caramés was born in Ferrol in 1953 and taught himself photography. His interest began at 15, when his father gave him a manual Voigtländer camera so he could photograph his paintings. He also used it to photograph his drawings and ironwork.
Later, he used photography during his studies in Technical Architecture. His first exhibitions took place in A Coruña in 1980.
In 1986, Caramés took part in the second edition of Fotobienal Vigovisións. The international project brought six photographers from different countries to Vigo for a week of photography. He later held solo exhibitions in Madrid and Barcelona. His work also appeared in group shows in Spain and Portugal, as well as in France.
His later exhibitions included Recreo in Santiago de Compostela in 2008 and Nadar in A Coruña in 2010. He showed Pasatiempo in Santiago in 2013, followed by Lugares in A Coruña in 2019. Madrid’s Sala Canal de Isabel II presented Algo. Nada. Siempre in 2022. In 2024, he published the photobook Bosque animado.
The previous recipient of the prize was Carmela García. Earlier winners include Laia Abril and Cristóbal Hara. The list also includes Pilar Aymerich and Ana Teresa Ortega Aznar, along with Montserrat Soto and Leopoldo Pomés. Separate coverage of Spain’s cultural institutions has included TVE’s anniversary return to television history.
