Marcel Giró

Marcel Giró was born in Badalona in 1912. He was the second of six brothers. Since he was a child, he was in love with mountains and photography.

After the Spanish civil war, he married a Catalonian woman, Palmira Puig, and they moved to Brazil where they became citizens. In Brazil, Giró resumed his hobby of photography and he decided to become professional. In 1953 he opened his first studio in São Paulo: Estúdio Giró.

Marcel Giró became one of the country’s leading photographers, a leading member of what became known as the Escuela Paulista. This movement, a pioneer of modern photography in Brazil, was born around the Foto Cine Club Bandeirante, in the 1950s, with photographers such as José Yalenti, Thomaz Farkas, Benedito Junqueira Duarte, Gertrudes Altschul, Geraldo de Barros, Rubens Teixeira Scavone, German Lorca, Alfio Trovato and Gaspar Gasparian between others.

Giró was also a pioneer of the publicity photography in Brazil. His studio was staffed by young assistants who would later become great multi-award winning photographers such as JR Duran and Marcio Scavone.

After his wife’s death, in 1979, he quitted professional and artistic photography. He died in Mirasol, Barcelona, in 2011, when he was 98 years old.