Kati Horna

Szilasbalhás, Hungría, 1912 - Ciudad de México, México, 2000

            Kati Horna was a pioneering photographer of surrealism and one of the first women to excel in photojournalism. She began her career in Paris in 1933 and later moved to Barcelona, where she worked as the editor-in-chief of the magazine Umbral. During the Spanish Civil War, she was commissioned by the government of the Spanish Republic to document the conflict, producing photo reports that served as external propaganda. Despite her talent and significant contributions, Horna's work was little known during her lifetime, as she refused to participate in exhibitions or promote herself. It was her daughter, Ana María Norah Horna, who discovered her vast photographic legacy after her death, which included more than twenty thousand negatives.

            One of the most notable episodes of Horna's career was her participation in the magazine S.nob, founded in 1962 by Salvador Elizondo, Juan García Ponce, and Emilio García Riera. The magazine, although short-lived, brought together avant-garde artists and writers of the time. In particular, Horna stood out for her contributions to the “Fetiches” section of the magazine, where she published works such as “Oda a la Necrofilia” and “Paraísos artificiales.” These photo stories, influenced by Freud and created in collaboration with artists like Leonora Carrington and Luz del Amo, explore the dreamlike, the sexual, and the macabre, challenging conventions and provoking an unsettling strangeness in the viewer.

            In her work, Horna sought to convey the complexity of human emotions and challenge the social and artistic norms of her time. Through her photo stories, she explored taboo subjects, creating provocative images that invited the viewer to reflect on the nature of the living and the inanimate, the eerie and the familiar. Her collaborative and narrative approach made her a precursor of the postmodern and feminist currents that would later emerge in the medium, leaving a lasting legacy in the art world.