“César Lucas: A Lifetime of Iconic Photography”

Born in Cantiveros (Avila) in 1941, Cesar Lucas He started at just 17 years old as a photographer for the agency Europa Press. Later it became part of the town newspaper as a graphic editor. In 1965 he founded his own graphic agency called Cosmo Press. Lucas is one of the most important national and international photojournalists, and one of the great graphic editors of our time.

Now, at the age of 82, the photographer exhibits his most valuable photographs, which portray great figures from the country and our history such as Marisol or Masiel —when she won Eurovision in London-—, the Duchess of Alba or the King and Queen of Spain. Julio Iglesias (sleeping on a plane) or John Lennon were also targeted for their way of looking.

“At the entrance to the exhibition we can see the photograph that César Lucas took of Che Guevara in Madrid in June 1959, when he worked for Europa Press. There are also photographs of Marisol, with whom he had a trusting relationship since he was 15 years old. , in a room dedicated to the artist”, comments one of the photographers who has selected some of the images that we will see in the exhibition. “We have nudes and photos that are not very well known, this is wonderful”, he adds.

Che Guevara during his visit to Madrid in June 1959. / César Lucas.

It will also be possible to contemplate familiar faces of politics such as Felipe González with Alfonso Guerra when they won the elections, a photograph of Fraga or snapshots of the Coup d’état. And other faces known for other reasons, like the singer Marta Sánchez when she was on the cover of Interviú, like Carmen Sevilla or Bárbara Rey.

But they will not be the only photographs that we will see, and it is that stars of the stature of Katharine Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Sean Connery, Raquel Welch, Yul Brinner, Romy Schneider, John Lennon, Billy Wilder, Clint Eastwood, Stephen Boyd, and Buster Keaton. Today, Elcierredigital.com Talk to Cesar Lucas.

Interest in photography

Cesar Lucas He arrived in Madrid when he was five years old. He lived near Gran Vía and every time he returned from school he would look at the windows of the most famous photographers’ studios of the time. “In my house there was an old camera that nobody used, I started to play around with it, and then I had contact with a friend who was a photographer, he took me one day to see an exhibition, and that’s how it all began,” he explains. Cesar Lucas a Elcierredigital.com.

The same friend one day showed him the laboratory he had at home, where the photographs were developed. After being amazed at how an image came out of a submerged paper, César did not doubt that he would dedicate himself to photographing and transform a wet paper into a photograph. The first photo of him was taken when he was 16 years old: a man dressed in a peculiar way who was walking through Cibeles. When he revealed it, Caesar took it to the Abc. The next day the newspaper had published it on the front page.

More than 55 years of work

César Lucas is the author of iconic images of Spain in the second half of the 20th century. In almost six decades of trajectory, the photographer has met great Hollywood stars and he was a pioneer in the creation of the figure of the graphic editor. A work that now has a place in the exhibition that begins today, May 18, at the Nikon House in Madrid.

John Lenon / Cesar Lucas.

“In this exhibition there are more than 55 years of my work. Photographs of my beginnings, up to the last ones that I have taken, with which they belong to different stages and different styles. I started at 17 years old, and I retired at 70, since I have been in different publications and at different times, logically”, explains the photographer. “From a press section in a newspaper in the early years in town newspaperto work in fashion magazines, Interview or travel magazines in recent times, with which I have been doing many types of photographs, many styles“, Add.

For this reason, it could seem, erroneously, that the exhibition shows the work of various photographers, since in it we can see different stages of history and different styles of images.

Carmen Seviila / Cesar Lucas.

César Lucas combined his work in the press with commissions from film companies. “It was in the 60s, when there was a lot of film production in Spain. I was lucky that I was hired by some of those companies to take pictures of the movie stars who worked in those movies. I had an agency then and those photos that I took, I did for national Spanish magazines and international magazines”, explains the photographer.

Photographs that can be seen in the exhibition, and it is that through the objective of César Lucas stars of the stature of Katharine Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Sean Connery, Raquel Welch, Yul Brinner, Romy Schneider, John Lennon, Billy Wilder, Clint Eastwood, Stephen Boyd y Buster Keaton.

From Che Guevara in Madrid to Marisol’s nude

At just 18 years old, César Lucas was hired by Europa Pressmedium with which the photographer had the opportunity to photograph the Che Guevara in June 1959, when he visited Madrid. A photograph that is also on display.

“It is a well-known photograph that was taken when we went to the University City, an image where he appears with the background of the Francoist triumphal arch. In the photograph he appears looking to the side, it seems that he was lost, ”explains César Lucas to Elcierredigital.com.

Che Guevara visiting the Preciados Galleries in Madrid. / Caesar Lucas

The photograph is displayed next to a contact — a page that contains all the photos that were taken when the famous photo of Che Guevara was taken — explains César. “There is the contact with almost all the photos, which are twelve, that I took with Che Guevara,” he comments to Elcierredigital.com.

César Lucas together with some of the portraits from the exhibition..

Another of the best-known photographs by César Lucas is the Marisol nude. The photographer and the singer maintained a very good professional relationship that would begin in 1963, in the midst of Marisol’s adolescence, until it became a myth. Without going any further, a key moment in his work was the iconic photo cover of Interviú from 1976with which the artist decides to break abruptly with Marisol to make way for Pepa Flores.

Memories embodied in images

It would be impossible for César to keep one of the thousands of photographs that he has taken throughout his more than 50 years in this profession. And it is that César Lucas speaks of his photos as if they were his children.

“Each photo has a story, each photo has memories, each photo has emotions, which are in me, not in the photo”, comments the photographer.

Marisol’s photographs.

“There are people who, when they see their photos, have a favorite photograph, or one that stands out that would be the one they would hang in their home, because a photograph produces a different type of emotion for each person,” he adds. “In my case, as a photographer, all my photos are like my childrenI have memories of each of them: the effort it took me to take the photo, what I had to do to get it, what it gave me…”, he explains.

Also, for him all photos have a story. “I would say that it is impossible for me to say that a photograph is my favorite”.