Madrid’s PHotoEspaña photography festival has started

PHotoEspaña is Madrid’s annual international photography and visual arts festival that’s been running since 1998.

From the 4 June until 24 July this summer, Madrid will see over 100 exhibitions celebrating Spanish photography. El País has topped this year’s festival as the most focused on human rights – including women’s rights, immigration and the effects of the economic crisis. The works span from the 19th century to young photographers today.

This year also sees a much bigger focus on Spanish photography too – up from the usual 30% that it tends to make up of the entire festival. “We believed it was the time to give a platform to Spanish photography,” said the festival’s director Claude Bussac. “This year’s aim is to build a visual portrait of Spain. We’re doing a chronological sweep, without being exhaustive, but showing the strength and goings on within the country’s photography.”

Two artists have already been named as the prize winners for this year’s edition: Gervasio Sánchez and Ramón Masats.

PHotoEspaña is running a competition to win a Samsung Galaxy NX30 with a 50-200mm lens. To enter, send in a photography of the city online, day or night, to add to the gallery of images showing Madrid 24 hours around the clock.

Lunes es el último día para enviar tu foto al concurso Madrid 24h Premio a la mejor foto: Samsung Galaxy NX30… http://t.co/lhmgfHFZIP

— PHotoEspaña (@photoespana) June 6, 2014

Find the festival on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Vimeo. Follow Madrid for Beginners for reviews of the exhibitions, too.