I have gone to the theater not to work but to see what the artists were doing », he said in 2008, suffering from cancer, the photographer Miguel Gracia Estrada (Zaragoza, 1931-Caracas, 2008), who was recently remembered by the Max awards when publishing some of his photos. Miguel Gracia was, above all, a theatrical and ballet photographer, and he titled his best work ‘The flight of the dance’.
One of his friends, the writer Rubén Monasterios, with whom he often collaborated, defined it as «unforgettable friend, that man from Caracas, with a rustic appearance and exquisite sensitivity; an artist to whom all Venezuelans owe respect and recognition for his role as a documenter of artistic dance and dramatic theater in our country; without his presence, our cultural memory would be more sparse». Monasterios further refined his portrait: “Miguel Gracia’s images are pure poetry of movement stopped at a crucial moment by the lens (…) he was the only theater critic who did not write but took photos.”
Not much is known about this artist who would receive the Venezuelan National Photography Award in 2006. He was the son of Sebastián Gracia and Pilar Estrada, and lived in his city until he was 25 years old. In Zaragoza, like his family, he devoted himself to jewelry, but he soon felt that the country was becoming overwhelming and in 1956 he moved to Mexico, where he lived for two years. Apparently it was there that he became interested in the scene and it has been written that he met Margarita Xirgu on one of her tours with a production by Lorca. It is unknown why, but he ended up moving to Caracas two years later: he worked as a jeweler in the beginning, designing and manufacturing pieces, apparently until 1964, and then he felt the call of photography.
From jewelry to the stage
It was made with two cameras, a Leica M4 and a 120mm Rolleiflex. And with them began the deaf apprenticeship of composing, shooting, framing and revealing. His friend the writer and journalist Edgar A. Moreno-Uribe wrote: «They taught him to develop, to move between acids and lights, in addition to the indispensable laboratory tanks, to make possible some testimonial images that became the fundamental chronology of Creole arts. No one taught him how to take photos, nor did anyone tell him how to take them better. He assures that he had few mistakes, because his initial works in theater and dance serve ». Two years later, his friend Jesús Matamoros (Spanish artist and manager of Typography Vargas) asked him and another colleague, the writer from Zaragoza Pascual Estrada Aznar, to do the theater review for the magazine ‘Kena’. He did not dare but he did take the first photo of him in Harold Pinter’s piece ‘The Janitor’.
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He used to say, “I’m a photographer because of the theatre.” And there she began a career as fertile as passionate.
Little by little, he became the reference photographer for the performing arts whose figures cause authentic astonishment: he worked from 1966 to 2007 and attended almost 4,000 shows with camera in hand. At first they were only theater, but since 1969 he was also attracted to dance. We turn to the forcefulness of the figures again: he registered 2,840 theatrical pieces (according to his own confession) and 1,063 dance pieces, a discipline to which he would dedicate many photos: he debuted with a performance of ‘Las silfides’ by the Venezuelan Classical Ballet. He was attentive to all the figures of the country, and captured the visits of the great ballets, actors or companies such as Lindsay Kemp, Peter Brook, Norma Aleandro, the Nina Novak Classical Ballet itself, whose choreographer Alice Dotta said: «It is so difficult to take good photographs that capture the moment and that can convey what the choreographer wants to say! But that was achieved by Miguel ». Before the praised ‘The Flight of the Dance’ (1995), his masterpiece, he published ‘Images of the Dance. Photographs by Miguel Gracia’ (1987).
The light and richness of the archive
In 1971, he would marry Pilar Blanco del Arco, with whom he had two children: Miguel and Javier. He collaborated with many companies, traveled abroad and in 1977 was hired by the National Council of Culture.
The photographer used to say: «Here it is not given much importance, but for me lighting is an art». He took the best photos of him enhancing light, contrast, gesture and movement. The music historian and critic Leopoldo Azparren said: «Miguel Gracia did his work in harmony with the playwrights, he lived and traveled with them. For no one he was a stranger but a companion committed to the chances, triumphs and frustrations of all ».
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His legacy is very complete; It has many sections: an impressive theatrical archive, from 1967 to 2007, which includes 84 groups and 92 national and international festivals, as seen in ‘The Venezuelan theater seen by Miguel Gracia’; a dance archive, from 1970 to 2007; an archive of creators, characters, painters, writers and dancers, and finally an archive of various subjects, where there is everything. It has been the subject of important exhibitions. Little is known about his links with Aragón, but both he and his wife and some friends said that he felt «Aragonese on all four sides».
“Miguel Gracia’s images are pure poetry of movement stopped at a crucial moment by the lens (…) He was the only theater critic who did not write but took photos.”
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