Photographer, Mara Catalan was born in Madrid in 1967. She is the granddaughter of Ramon Menedez Pidal, one of Spain leading 20th century humanists, and the daughter of Diego Catalan, a disciple of Menedez Pidal and a Medival scholar. Some of Mara’s earliest memories are that of traveling with her father through rural Spanish villages recording popular ballads and songs (Romanceros) later to be transcribed for his research. Her interest in photography started on these journeys with her father, his stories and as she began to record the world seen through the eyes of the village people and their customs.

In 1990 Mara left Spain for New York City and began work as a photographer and professional B&W printer freelancing with different magazines and collaborating on artist’s projects. In 1995 she traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, driven by an interest in the people of that region and their ways of life. She found work restoring negatives in Gertrude Duby Blom’s photography archives at the Na-Bolom Museum in San Cristobal de las Casas. Her arrival in Chiapas coincided with the Zapatista uprising and over the two years that she lived there she made numerous trips into the jungle one of the main Zapatista strongholds. La Realidad, which became the subject of one of her mayor photographic projects “La realidad: La otra cara de un pueblo Zapatista”.

In 1997 Mara returned to New York and began working as a B&W printer at Magnum Photos. She specialized in fine art book printing, exhibition printing and commercial reproductions. She has printed some of the great work of Magnum photographers: Erich Hartmann’s “Queen Elizabeth”; Paul Fusco’s “Chernobyl legacy”; Robert Capa’s “Death of a Loyalist Militiaman” and “D-day Normandy”; Bruce Davidson’s “Central Park”, Bruce Gilden’s “Facing New York”, “Coney island” and “Go”; Larry Towell’s “Mennonites”; Dennis Stock’s “James Dean” and “Audrey Hepburn”; Burt Glinn’s “Cuban revolution”. She has also made prints for Elliot Elliot Erwitt, Chien Chi Chang, Leonard Freed and James Nachtwey.

In 2002 Mara opened her own lab in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in 2006 she extended the lab to include a photography space “Studio304”. Apart from photographing and printing, Mara now holds a monthly Slideshow at Studio304 that showcases new work from young photographers. For more of her extensive work visit her website: www.maracatalan.com