The exhibition "California Dreamin'" is open at Aiete Kultur Etxea

"More than half the homeless people in the United States live in California. According to official figures for 2022, there were 115,491 people sleeping in the street, in parks, vehicles and abandoned buildings. Some experts believe the true figure is much higher. For more than a decade, California has had the country's largest homeless population, and since the Great Recession of 2008, Darcy Padilla has been documenting the rise in poverty and lack of housing.

Of the five US cities with the largest homeless populations, four are in California: Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland and San Jose. The contrast is so shocking that groups of homeless people live in penury alongside the dazzling technological campuses of Facebook, Apple and Google.

California is the world's fifth-largest economy".

Paco Valderrama
Curator of the exhibition

Darcy Padilla

Darcy Padilla is a photojournalist, art professor at Wisconsin-Madison University, and a member of Agence VU' in Paris. Known for her narrative photography, Padilla focuses on long-term projects exploring topics connected with the victims (above all in the USA) of socioeconomic problems. Her acclaimed monograph Family Love documents a family over the course of 21 years, presenting an intimate portrait of poverty, AIDS and slipping through the safety net.

Darcy Padilla's reportage features have been printed in leading publications, and shown at international exhibitions. Various museums and institutions also have them in their collections. Her numerous accolades include three World Press Photo awards (including the inaugural Long-Term Projects category in 2015), and the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography.

Timetable

• from Tuesday to Friday: 16:00 - 20:30
• Saturdays: 10:00 - 14:00 / 16:30 – 20:00
• Sundays: 10:00 - 14:00
• Mondays and holidays: closed