Pioneering female photojournalist dies

Break­ing new ground is not easy in any field, but doing so as a woman in a man’s world is more dif­fi­cult still. Yet that is what Joana Biarnés man­aged to do in the world of pho­to­jour­nal­ism. Biarnés died on Wednes­day night aged 83, ac­cord­ing to a state­ment yes­ter­day from her fam­ily. The same state­ment pointed out that as a young­ster Biarnés had promised her fa­ther she would al­ways hold her head high. She kept her promise, giv­ing up her pro­fes­sion as it be­came in­creas­ingly friv­o­lous and moved to Ibiza, where she opened a restau­rant.

Born in Ter­rassa in 1935, her fa­ther, Joan Biarnés, was a sports pho­tog­ra­pher, who taught his daugh­ter how to nav­i­gate a male world. Yet, as she de­vel­oped into a pho­to­jour­nal­ist, Biarnés brought a new fem­i­nine view­point to her pro­fes­sion that was able to see pro­fun­dity in banal events and re­veal the light­ness of those that were oth­er­wise tragic.