Photographer Ouka Leele dies at 64

The photographer Ouka Leele has died this Tuesday, a month before her 65th birthday, sources from the artist's family have informed Efe.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 May 2022 Tuesday 13:59
14 Reads
Photographer Ouka Leele dies at 64

The photographer Ouka Leele has died this Tuesday, a month before her 65th birthday, sources from the artist's family have informed Efe.

Bárbara Allende Gil de Biedma, known as Ouka Leele, died this afternoon in a Madrid hospital, accompanied by her daughter and other relatives and friends, after a long illness. Her mortal remains will be transferred to the San Isidro Funeral Home, according to the same sources.

National Photography Award 2005, Silver Medal from the Community of Madrid, Ouka Leele received on May 15 the Madrid Medal awarded by the City Council of the capital, among many other distinctions.

Passionate about color, she became known for her colored photos in the early eighties and became a benchmark and a prominent member of the Movida Madrileña.

Since the end of the 1970s, he has exhibited in numerous countries and has works in institutions such as the Reina Sofía Museum, the La Caixa Foundation or the ARCO Collection.

"Since I was very little I have been touching art, painting. Photography was not what I was looking for. As a child I was not interested in anything. In fact, the first camera I had was given to me at my first communion, I think, and I never used it," she affirmed the artist in an interview with Efe in 2019.

In that meeting, she also stated: "I feel comfortable in all the artistic disciplines in which I can give something. I believe that the medium is not important, but the purpose".