Contact
About
Born in Madrid, raised in the Internet.
Daniel Mayrit graduated in Media Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. Then spent a couple of years in Copenhagen (Denmark) studying at the Copenhagen University prior to his moving to London (UK) where he graduated in Photographic Arts at the University of Westminster. He moved back to Madrid after being awarded a scholarship for his MA Photography at EFTI Photography School.
His work as an artist has been exhibited across Europe in places such as The Photographer’s Gallery, FOMU Antwerp, MUSA Vienna, MNHA Luxembourg, Paris Photo or PhotoEspaña. His most notable works are ‘You Haven’t Seen Their Faces’ and ‘Authorised Images’, both published as photobooks. The former was the winner of the Aperture First Photobook Prize at Paris Photo 2015.
As a curator, he directed the “Upload/Download” exhibition for PhotoEspaña ‘17 (Spain) and more recently he curated part of the exhibition ‘Here I Live’ at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (Russia) within the frame of the Media Congress. Since 2019 he is also a co-director of the festival Fiebre Photobook in Madrid, the first and only one in Spain dedicated
to photobooks.
Daniel Mayrit is also the director and course leader of the Photography MA at LENS School of Visual Arts, in Madrid, and he has been a guest lecturer across a number of universities in Spain and Europe. He has conducted a number of workshops on the use of new technologies for image-making and has given lectures on this and other related topics.
He also writes periodical essays on image, technology and politics for Clavoardiendo Magazine (in Spanish).
ARTIST STATEMENT
With the arrival, over a decade ago, of smartphones, social networks and an endless stream of new technologies related to the production and dissemination of images, these have achieved an exponential prominence in our lives. Today photography is not only what comes out of a camera, but it is also produced, replicated and distributed by the so-called machine-vision devices, from computer-generated images to those produced by security cameras or encrypted algorithms. In this environment of increasing photographic immersion, it is essential to develop mechanisms that allow us to understand how images operate, what new patterns of behaviour they generate and how they affect relationships between people and between them and the images themselves.
This is the field in which the work of Daniel Mayrit is framed, focused mainly on deciphering the codes through which photography and contemporary images operate, in order to expose and examine the power relations that they enable. This decomposition of the visual language is aimed at understanding why a certain system of representation conditions the meaning that the viewer extracts from an image and how we can problematise it and deconstruct it in order to offer new possible meanings. To this end, Mayrit usually appropriates not necessarily or exclusively existing given images, but the clichés and canons of a whole representational system with the goal of decomposing it into small pieces. These pieces can then be rearranged differently, using those same visual resources, turning the visual language upside down and launching a message in an opposite direction. It is therefore a matter of deconstructing and denaturalising visual codes that have been assumed and normalised by the viewers in order to highlight the power relations that operate within the images and between them and the viewers in order to challenge and question their preconceptions and expectations and to ultimately invite them to be critically aware of a given image discourse and agenda.
CV
Education
2013-2014 MA Photography - EFTI, Madrid (Spain)
2009-2012 BA Photographic Arts - University of Westminster, London (UK)
2007-2008 MA Media Sciences - University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
2003-2007 BA Media Sciences - Universidad Complutense, Madrid (Spain)
As a Curator
2020-onwards - Co-Director at FIEBRE Photobook Festival - Madrid (Spain)
2018 - 'Here I Live', MediaCongress '18, Hermitage Museum - Saint Petersburg (Russia)
2017 - 'UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD: Photography and the Internet', PhotoEspaña'17 - Madrid (Spain)
As an Artist
Solo Shows
2023 - ‘One of Yours’, The Photobook Museum - Cologne (Germany)
2023 - ‘One of Yours’, Point Ephemere - Paris (France)
2023 - ‘One of Yours’, Imaginaria Festival - Castellon (Spain)
2022 - ‘One of Yours’, Images Vevey - Vevey (Switzerland)
2022 - ‘One of Yours’, Sala Kursala - Cadiz (Spain)
2016 - ‘Imágenes Autorizadas’, PhotoEspaña ‘16 - Galeria CERO, Madrid (Spain)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 - ‘The Spectre of the People’ - Thessaloniki Biennial, MoMUS - Thessaloniki (Greece)
2022 - 'Reiniciar Ahora' - Galeria Nueva - Madrid (Spain)
2021 - Noorderlicht Festival, ‘The Makeable Mind’ - Groningen (The Netherlands)
2019 - “Contrôle+Z”, Centre d’Art GwinZegal - Guingamp (France)
2018 - Umbria World Fest - Foligno (Italy)
2018 - "Modos de Mirar", Centro Conde Duque - Madrid (Spain)
2017 - Lianzhou Photography Festival - Lianzhou (China). CENSORED-NOT DISPLAYED
2017 - Voies Off Festival - Arles (France)
2017 - Athens PhotoFestival, Benaki Museum - Athens (Greece)
2017 - FIF Belo Horizonte, Museo Mineiro - Belo Horizonte (Brasil)
2017 - 'Esperando a Thoreau', Centro Cultural de España - Tegucigalpa (Guatemala)
2017 - 'Un Cierto Panorama. Reciente Fotografía de Autor en España' - Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid (Spain)
2017 - FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA Festival, 'Les Nouveaux Encyclopédistes', Chiostri di S. Pietro - Reggio Emilia (Italy)
2017 - EMop Arendt Award - Luxembourg City (Luxembour)
2017 - 'Portraits sous surveillance' , MNHA - Luxembourg City (Luxembourg)
2016 - 'Looking for the Clouds' (EMoP), MUSA - Vienna (Austria)
2016 - ‘Images of Power’ - Seen Fifteen Gallery, London (UK)
2016 - 'Art, Activism and Terrorism' - Konvent, Barcelona (Spain)
2016 - 'Show us the Money' - Fotomuseum, Antwerp (Belgium)
2016 - 'Strange and Familiar' - Barbican Art Gallery, London (UK)
2016 - 'Consideracions d'un apolític', DocField - Nau Bostik, Barcelona (Spain)
2015 - Aperture Gallery - New York (USA)
2015 - Huis Marseille Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2015 - Paris Photo, 'Aperture First Book Award', Paris (France)
2015 - Noorderlicht Photofestival, 'Data Rush', Groningen (Netherlands)
2015 - FOTODOK Festival, '(No) Privacy', Utrecht (Netherlands)
2015 - 'Prix du Livre' - Les Ateliers, Arles (France)
2015 - Kassel Fotobook Festival - Documenta Halle, Kassel (Germany)
2015 - 'Best Photobooks of the Year' - National Library, Madrid (Spain)
2015 - Belfast Photofestival - Photo Park, Belfast (UK)
2015 - 'Everything is Politics' - IC Visual Lab, Bristol (UK)
2015 - Jääl Photo Fair - Madrid (Spain)
2014 - ‘Aqui y Ahora’ (Right Here, Right Now) - Blanca Soto Arte, Madrid (Spain)
2014 - PhotoEspaña, ‘Fotografía 2.0’ - Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid (Spain) 2014 - PhotoEspaña, ‘P2P, Contemporary Spanish Photography’, Madrid (Spain)
2013 - ‘Fresh Faced + Wild Eyed’ - The Photographers Gallery, London (UK)
2013 - PhotoIreland - Dublin (Ireland)
2012 - SCAN Festival - Tarragona (Spain)
2012 - Free Range - Old Truman Brewery, London (UK)
2011 - Foto8 Summershow - Host Gallery, London (UK)
Awards & Shortlists
2022 - Shortlisted 'Prix du Livre'. Les Rencontres d'Arles (France)
2022 - Finalist 'Premio Eloi Gimeno' (Spain)
2021 - Shortlisted 'Bird in Flight Prize' (Ukraine)
2021 - Shortlisted Vevey Photobook Prize (Switzerland)
2021 - Finalist Ankaria Foto Prize (Spain)
2020 - Finalist BMW Residency (France)
2020 - Finalist Landskrona Residency (Sweden)
2017 - Nominated Arendt Award '17 (Luxembourg)
2016 - Runner Up 'Portfolio Night'. CNA Dudelange (Luxembourg)
2015 - WINNER 'Aperture First Book Award'. Paris Photo (France)
2015 - Shortlisted 'Prix du Livre'. Les Rencontres d'Arles (France)
2015 - Nominated 'Photobook of the Year'. Kassel Fotobook Festival (Germany)
2015 - Shortlisted 'Best Photobook of the Year'. PhotoEspaña (Spain)
2015 - Finalist Premio Ojo de Pez 'Valores Humanos' (Spain)
2014 - Nexofoto Prize. Finalist (Spain)
2013 - Absolut Portfolios. Finalist (Spain)
2013 - 1st Prize - Rodrigo Villagraz Grant (Spain)
Selected Press
2023 - Trigger Fomu [print + online]
2023 - Monopol Magazin [online]
2022 - British Journal of Photography [print]
2022 - El País [print]
2021 - ICON-El País [online]
2021 - El Mundo [online]
2020 - Efecto Doppler [radio]
2017 - Camara Abierta, RTVE [TV + online]
2016 - El País [online]
2016 - The Guardian [online]
2016 - Xataka [online]
2016 - IMA Japan, Summer issue vol.16 [print]
2016 - British Journal of Photography, issue #7844 [print]
2016 - Fisheye, issue #16 [print]
2016 - Yet Magazine, issue #9 [print]
2016 - ClavoArdiendo [online]
2015 - Monthly Photography Korea [print]
2015 - Forbes (Spanish Edition) [print]
2015 - Ojo de Pez [print]
2015 - El Asombrario [online]
2015 - American Suburb X [online]
2015 - Liberation [print + online]
2015 - Yorokobu [print + online]
2015 - Cadena SER [radio]
2015 - Playground Magazine [online]
2015 - El País [print + online]
2014 - Lens Culture [online]
2014 - ABC [online]
2014 - esRadio [radio]
2014 - CNET [online]
2014 - Liberation [print + online]
2014 - Publico [online]
2014 - Cadena SER [radio + online]
2013 - BBC News ‘In Pictures’ [online]
2013 - FLIP Magazine - Summer Issue [print]
2012 - Troika Editions [online]
2012 - 30y3 [online]
2012 - Cienojos [online]
2012 - Conscientious [online]
Workshops
2020-onwards - MA Photography Director at LENS School for Visual Arts (Madrid)
2018 - Stories, Likes and Shares: Photography on Social Media for Teenagers, at Fundación Telefónica - Madrid
2017 - Smartphone Photography for Teenagers, at PhotoEspaña '17 - Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (Spain)
2017 - New Image-Making Technologies for a Critical Discourse, at EFTI - Madrid (Spain)
2017 - Post-Photographic Practices, at LENS Visual Arts School - Madrid (Spain)
2016 - Occupy The Internet: Photography and Social Networks, at DONE2, Fundación FotoColectania - Barcelona (Spain)
2016 - The New Shape of the Image, at Universidad Complutense - Madrid (Spain)
2015 - PhotoBook Making Masterclass, with Rob Hornstra and Vincent van Baar, at KABK - The Hague (Netherlands)
2015 - Travelling the World Without Ever Leaving Our Room, at GetxhoPhoto Festival - Getxo (Spain)
Talks and Lectures
Coming soon...