Juan Millás wins first place for the Photography Award from the ENAIRE Foundation

The three winning photographs will form part of the ENAIRE Contemporary Art Collection

ENAIRE Foundation, part of the ENAIRE public business entity, announced the winners at the eleventh edition of the ENAIRE Foundation Photography Award. The aim of the award is to help promote this artistic speciality and expand the contents of the ENAIRE Contemporary Art Collection.

First place, with a prize of 12,000 euros, went to Juan Millás, for his work entitled A grove of trees from a point of view, carried out in 2017. The jury rated the photographic quality, formal beauty and exquisite technique in the work.

Second place was awarded to María Primo, with a prize of 8,000 euros. Her work, The Wall (2017), stood out for its innovative approach to photography and interesting use of colour.

And finally, third place went to Eduardo Nave, for his work Aldea global II, from the LIKE series, chapter VI (2017). With a prize of 5,000 euros, this work stood out for its sociological analysis of the current global world, in which plasticity and harmony come together to form an interesting overall aesthetic.

As well as the three finalists, the jury unanimously selected seven pieces that will be included in the 2018 ENAIRE Foundation Photography Award catalogue, and in the exhibition that will take place from 14 June in the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes (Calle Alcalá 49, Madrid). This exhibition will also form part of the PHotoEspaña international festival of visual arts, which is celebrating its XX edition this year.

ENAIRE Foundation also decided to give out the Career Award for the first time, paying homage to the professional career of a photographer, with an award of 25,000 euros. In this first edition, the jury unanimously decided to give the award to Javier Vallhonrat, for his distinguished artistic career, his contribution to Spanish photography and its international projection, as well as the quality, sensitivity and depth of his works.

Along with Julio Gómez-Pomar, Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing, and Chairman of ENAIRE and the Board of ENAIRE Foundation (who delegated his vote to the conservation director of the ENAIRE Foundation), various key cultural agents and artists of national and international prestige formed part of the jury:

• - José Guirao, managing director of the Montemadrid Foundation
• - Carlos Rosón, chairman of the RAC Foundation and patron of ENAIRE Foundation
• - Claude Bussac, director of PHotoEspaña
• - Daniel Canogar, visual artist
• - José Manuel Ballester, National Photography Award in 2010
• - Beatriz Montero de Espinosa, managing director of ENAIRE Foundation
• - Ángeles Imaña, director of Conservation and Cultural Projects for ENAIRE Foundation, as secretary

The seven selected works are:

• - 9 bancos para hablar by photographer Llorenç Ugas. PHotoEspaña special mention
• - Dai #14 by Rojo Sache (Rosa Vázquez and José Antonio Fernández)
• - Pyrene 4 Monte Perdido by Pablo Álvarez Couso
• - Soledades by Alfonso Batalla
• - Caballo by Raúl Urbina
• - Comporta-miento para un simulacro by Antonio Guerra Casquero
• - Fantasmagoría 10-51 by Juan Adrio Fondevila

The work of ENAIRE Foundation

ENAIRE Foundation is a cultural institution linked to the ENAIRE public business entity. Its objectives include promoting aeronautical culture, and conserving, expanding and disseminating the artistic heritage of the parent company. This heritage is formed of a notable collection of Spanish and Ibero-American art, spanning from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day. It encompasses more than a thousand paintings, sculptures, photographs, graphic art pieces, works on paper and multimedia artworks.

ENAIRE is the public company that reports to the Ministry of Public Works, which manages (through its 5 control centres, 22 towers and a network of aeronautical infrastructure and equipment) the fourth largest airspace in Europe in terms of traffic volume. The air traffic managed by ENAIRE transports more than 250 million passengers on 2 million flights per year.