On the 10th of September Alberto Schommer died at the age of 87, victim of a cancer. August of 2013, Schommer had suddenly lost his wife Mercedes Casla, who was the love of his life. Since his wife passed away, he didn´t feel like dealing wit anything. Mercedes Casla served as the right and left hand of Schommer. She loved books, she was owner of a bookstore called Estudio 2 libros. For this reason, the book was chosen as the main working method. He published around 60 books.
In 2013, he was awarded the National Photography Prize: “It was an unexpected surprise, and a sense of delay: the photographers of my same generation should have been awarded with the prize long ago. Some, like Oriol Maspons, died without having received the prize, which seems to me incomprehensible. The jury of the Award is sometimes comprised by people who do not know the profession. But no one takes the excitement about the award from me.
2014 was a year of much complete success, he was the first photographer to exhibit his works in the Prado Museum, devoting an exhibition to his “Masks” created in the 80s. The Masks series pays tribute to a remarkable group of spanish intellectuals. It is displayed in close proximity to a selection of portraits from the Museum´s collection painted by artists like Velazquez or Goya.
Fotografía: Ignacio Hernando Rodríguez
In 2015, Schommer made his last work. He photographed the candidates of the Madrid city council and Autonomous community. The proposal is called “I do not hide anything”. This idea sprang from the minds of Schommer, who is concerned about political corruption. He asked the politics to pose showing the palms of the hands.
Whith this small summary form the last three years and sadly because of the loss of Alberto Schommer, we would like to thank everyone who has demonstrated admiration and strong affection to Schommer, who was and will be a big name in the photography.