Cristina García Rodero was born in Puertollano, Spain, in 1949. She studied painting at the School of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid before taking up photography. She then qualified as a teacher and worked full-time in education. For the next 16 years, she dedicated her time to researching and photographing popular and traditional festivities, religious and pagan, principally in Spain, but also across Mediterranean Europe. This project culminated in her 1989 book, España Oculta, which won the Book of the Year Award at Rencontres d’Arles. The same year, she also won the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Fund Grant.
García Rodero’s work always shows a deep interest in human behavior, particularly in its dualities and contradictions: religious/pagan, natural/supernatural, life/death, pleasure/pain, war/peace, city/countryside, new/old, land/water, men/gods, spirits/earth. Her work is often an inquiry into the traditions and rites that have survived for centuries, as well as the new beliefs and manifestations that result from economic and political changes, current needs, and social conflicts.
García Rodero has received many honors, including the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize, Spain’s National Photography Award, and RNE’s “El Ojo Crítico” Award. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally, including at MoMA PS1 in New York, the Venice Biennale, Museo del Prado in Madrid, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and Museo Álvarez Bravo in Oaxaca. It is also part of many permanent collections, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, International Center of Photography in New York, and Museum Folkwang in Essen, among many others.
García Rodero has produced several books, including España, Fiestas y Ritos (1992), Rituales en Haití (2001), Transtempo (2010), Los siete pecados capitales (2013), and Lalibela, cerca del cielo (2017). She was a member of the agency Vu for more than 15 years.
She joined Magnum Photos in 2005 and became a full member in 2009.
