Panel: Framing the Front – Women Photographers and the Spanish Civil War

Presentation Type

Event

Start Date

8-3-2026 8:30 AM

Description

Panelists: María de los Santos García Felguera, Lourdes Delgado, Marta López Beriso

A comprehensive panel examining the significant but often overlooked contributions of women photographers to documenting the Spanish Civil War. Through individual papers and collaborative analysis, the panelists reveal the disparities between foreign and Spanish women photographers, recovery efforts of archival materials, and the complex ethical dimensions of women's photographic practices during wartime.

Gerda Grepp: Photojournalism from the Spanish Civil War / María de los Santos García Felguera
The subject of women who took photographs during the Spanish Civil War has gone from not existing to becoming a monograph on Gerda Taro (1910-1937), as the only one. Over the last decade, thanks to the work of independent researchers, a series of women's names and their works have begun to appear. All of them accompany the German, not leaving her isolated inside her myth: Margaret Michaelis, Kati Horna, Margaret Bourke-White, Vera Elkan, Ana María Martínez Sagi, Ruth von Wild, Claude Kinoull, Elisabeth Hodgson, Remei Rahola, and Carmen Pedrosa. Women professional and amateur, journalists, nurses, teachers and homekeepers; interested in the battle front, in the protagonists of the war and in the anonymous people, in everyday life at the front and the rearguard, in the countryside and in the cities, interested in the combatants and the refugees, in the novelties of the ‘Spanish revolution’ and the departure of the defeated. One of those women who travelled to Spain, ready to defend the ideals of democracy, was Gerda Grepp (1907-1940), a young Norwegian journalist who reported to her country's press between October 1936 and January 1938. She also took pictures and published them in Norwegian newspapers, mainly from Madrid and Malaga, where she was the last journalist to leave the city before rebel troops took it. Gerda Grepp often acted as a translator, so her role became more important. This essay analyzes Grepp’s photographic work in Spain from three sides: the personal one, with Gerda’s biographer Elisabeth Vislie; the archival, with Sølvi Bennett Moen, Photoarchivist in The Norwegian Labour Movement Archives and Library (Oslo), which preserves Gerda’s pictures; and their contextualisation among the photographs taken by other women in Spain during those years.

Margaret Bourke-White: Unpublished Photographs of the Spanish Civil War / Lourdes Delgado
Margaret Bourke-White is undoubtedly the most internationally recognized female photojournalist of the first half of the twentieth century and one of the most widely published photographers of her time. However, despite the extensive bibliography on her professional career, no specific study has yet been published on the images she took in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. This gap is particularly striking given the growing academic interest in recent years in the participation of women photographers in the conflict. This presentation is part of an ongoing research project that aims to address this gap. In order to reconstruct the photographer’s work during her stay in Spain, multiple archives in Spain and the United States were consulted, along with period publications and studies dedicated to her work and to the Spanish Civil War. The research provides a new reading of the biographical literature on Margaret Bourke-White, demonstrating that, before her celebrated war reports during World War II, she had already photographed an armed conflict. This finding positions her Spanish experience as a decisive precedent in her career and also contributes to the historiography of photography of the Spanish Civil War from a gender perspective.

The Subversion of Claudek’s False Visual Narrative in the Spanish Civil War/ Marta López Beriso
This paper explores the complex role of British photographer Enid Margaret Hamilton Fellows, known as Claude Kinnoull or Claudek (1904–1985), whose extensive visual record of the Spanish Civil War offers a paradoxical contribution to photographic history. Her ability to navigate traditionally male domains—from war zones to press circles, from aviation to automobile mechanics—was made possible by the immense fortune she inherited. Economic privilege afforded her mobility and resources, shielding her as she pursued a personal crusade within patriarchal structures. A fervent convert to Catholicism, Kinnoull viewed her actions in Spain as part of a holy war against the perceived threat of communism. Committed to the Nationalist cause, she financed and documented the conflict as an act of ideological allegiance. Her privileged status granted her access to newly captured towns such as Gernika and Belchite, enabling her to create a vivid visual testimony of destruction—a body of work that, contrary to her intentions, evidences the violence inflicted by the insurgent forces she supported, rather than the “red terror” she sought to expose. This case study reflects on the complexities of women’s contributions to photography, revealing how agency and constraint, tradition and disruption, coexist in unexpected ways. It contributes to an international dialogue about women’s roles in shaping photographic history, highlighting how visual materials — even when produced within conservative frameworks — can inadvertently subvert dominant narratives. Whether confronting patriarchy directly or navigating within its frameworks, women’s interventions rupture the positions assigned to them, forcing the creation of new spaces of power, visibility, and historical agency — even, as in Kinnoull’s case, when they believe themselves to be upholding tradition.

María de los Santos García Felguera has a PhD in Art History (Complutense University, Madrid). She is a Professor of History of Photography & History of Art. Part of her research is devoted to women photographers working in Spain (professional and amateur). Her publications and curated exhibitions have established her as a leading scholar on women's contributions to Spanish photographic history.

Dr. Lourdes Delgado Fernández (Barcelona, 1965) is a Lecturer in Photography and Visual Studies at ESDAPC (Escola Superior de Disseny i d'Arts Plàstiques de Catalunya) and a researcher specializing in the history of Spanish and Catalan photography. She is the author of Mugshot's Bias: A Semantic History of Guilt (Photography and Culture, 2017). Lourdes has co-authored multiple scholarly articles with art historian Núria F. Rius on women photographers and female-gendered photographic practices.

Marta López Beriso is a Professor of Art History and Cultural Studies at the University of San Diego and the Fundación Ortega-Marañón. Her research focuses on the history of photography, particularly on women's roles within it.

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Mar 8th, 8:30 AM

Panel: Framing the Front – Women Photographers and the Spanish Civil War

Panelists: María de los Santos García Felguera, Lourdes Delgado, Marta López Beriso

A comprehensive panel examining the significant but often overlooked contributions of women photographers to documenting the Spanish Civil War. Through individual papers and collaborative analysis, the panelists reveal the disparities between foreign and Spanish women photographers, recovery efforts of archival materials, and the complex ethical dimensions of women's photographic practices during wartime.

Gerda Grepp: Photojournalism from the Spanish Civil War / María de los Santos García Felguera
The subject of women who took photographs during the Spanish Civil War has gone from not existing to becoming a monograph on Gerda Taro (1910-1937), as the only one. Over the last decade, thanks to the work of independent researchers, a series of women's names and their works have begun to appear. All of them accompany the German, not leaving her isolated inside her myth: Margaret Michaelis, Kati Horna, Margaret Bourke-White, Vera Elkan, Ana María Martínez Sagi, Ruth von Wild, Claude Kinoull, Elisabeth Hodgson, Remei Rahola, and Carmen Pedrosa. Women professional and amateur, journalists, nurses, teachers and homekeepers; interested in the battle front, in the protagonists of the war and in the anonymous people, in everyday life at the front and the rearguard, in the countryside and in the cities, interested in the combatants and the refugees, in the novelties of the ‘Spanish revolution’ and the departure of the defeated. One of those women who travelled to Spain, ready to defend the ideals of democracy, was Gerda Grepp (1907-1940), a young Norwegian journalist who reported to her country's press between October 1936 and January 1938. She also took pictures and published them in Norwegian newspapers, mainly from Madrid and Malaga, where she was the last journalist to leave the city before rebel troops took it. Gerda Grepp often acted as a translator, so her role became more important. This essay analyzes Grepp’s photographic work in Spain from three sides: the personal one, with Gerda’s biographer Elisabeth Vislie; the archival, with Sølvi Bennett Moen, Photoarchivist in The Norwegian Labour Movement Archives and Library (Oslo), which preserves Gerda’s pictures; and their contextualisation among the photographs taken by other women in Spain during those years.

Margaret Bourke-White: Unpublished Photographs of the Spanish Civil War / Lourdes Delgado
Margaret Bourke-White is undoubtedly the most internationally recognized female photojournalist of the first half of the twentieth century and one of the most widely published photographers of her time. However, despite the extensive bibliography on her professional career, no specific study has yet been published on the images she took in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. This gap is particularly striking given the growing academic interest in recent years in the participation of women photographers in the conflict. This presentation is part of an ongoing research project that aims to address this gap. In order to reconstruct the photographer’s work during her stay in Spain, multiple archives in Spain and the United States were consulted, along with period publications and studies dedicated to her work and to the Spanish Civil War. The research provides a new reading of the biographical literature on Margaret Bourke-White, demonstrating that, before her celebrated war reports during World War II, she had already photographed an armed conflict. This finding positions her Spanish experience as a decisive precedent in her career and also contributes to the historiography of photography of the Spanish Civil War from a gender perspective.

The Subversion of Claudek’s False Visual Narrative in the Spanish Civil War/ Marta López Beriso
This paper explores the complex role of British photographer Enid Margaret Hamilton Fellows, known as Claude Kinnoull or Claudek (1904–1985), whose extensive visual record of the Spanish Civil War offers a paradoxical contribution to photographic history. Her ability to navigate traditionally male domains—from war zones to press circles, from aviation to automobile mechanics—was made possible by the immense fortune she inherited. Economic privilege afforded her mobility and resources, shielding her as she pursued a personal crusade within patriarchal structures. A fervent convert to Catholicism, Kinnoull viewed her actions in Spain as part of a holy war against the perceived threat of communism. Committed to the Nationalist cause, she financed and documented the conflict as an act of ideological allegiance. Her privileged status granted her access to newly captured towns such as Gernika and Belchite, enabling her to create a vivid visual testimony of destruction—a body of work that, contrary to her intentions, evidences the violence inflicted by the insurgent forces she supported, rather than the “red terror” she sought to expose. This case study reflects on the complexities of women’s contributions to photography, revealing how agency and constraint, tradition and disruption, coexist in unexpected ways. It contributes to an international dialogue about women’s roles in shaping photographic history, highlighting how visual materials — even when produced within conservative frameworks — can inadvertently subvert dominant narratives. Whether confronting patriarchy directly or navigating within its frameworks, women’s interventions rupture the positions assigned to them, forcing the creation of new spaces of power, visibility, and historical agency — even, as in Kinnoull’s case, when they believe themselves to be upholding tradition.

María de los Santos García Felguera has a PhD in Art History (Complutense University, Madrid). She is a Professor of History of Photography & History of Art. Part of her research is devoted to women photographers working in Spain (professional and amateur). Her publications and curated exhibitions have established her as a leading scholar on women's contributions to Spanish photographic history.

Dr. Lourdes Delgado Fernández (Barcelona, 1965) is a Lecturer in Photography and Visual Studies at ESDAPC (Escola Superior de Disseny i d'Arts Plàstiques de Catalunya) and a researcher specializing in the history of Spanish and Catalan photography. She is the author of Mugshot's Bias: A Semantic History of Guilt (Photography and Culture, 2017). Lourdes has co-authored multiple scholarly articles with art historian Núria F. Rius on women photographers and female-gendered photographic practices.

Marta López Beriso is a Professor of Art History and Cultural Studies at the University of San Diego and the Fundación Ortega-Marañón. Her research focuses on the history of photography, particularly on women's roles within it.