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.