Mariona Giner

Mariona Giner: Photographic Boundaries of the Spanish Roma Communities

Born in the UK in 1970, Mariona Giner lived here until 1986 and is now based in Barcelona where she studied photography, specialising in photojournalism. Her work—focused on socio-cultural identity—has included representation of the realities for women in prison and within marginal communities on the periphery of Barcelona.

Between 1992 and 1997 she explored formal aspects of photojournalistic practice in work focused on gypsy families from Mataró. From 1997 to 2001 Mariona Giner returned to the UK where she studied Fine Arts and explored the influence of the camera’s presence on photographed subjects. Her subsequent work has queried stereotypes within photographic discourse.

The jazz group La Locomotora Negra are the subject of the documentary film directed by Giner in 2008. Retrat de família [Family Portrait], an exhibition of Mariona Giner’s photographic work on Gypsy culture and traditions in Catalan, Andalusian, and English communities is currently being shown in the Centre Cultural Blanquerna, in Madrid. A holder of the Lena Garnade Sponsorship and the Key Photo awards, Giner’s work has also been shown in the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

Supported by the Institut Ramon Llull