Casa Capellà Pallarés hosts the 47th autumn photography exhibition
Casa Capellà Pallarés in Sagunto, a Fundación Bancaja cultural centre, is hosting the 47th Autumn Photography Salon, open until 16 October.
From this Thursday, the Fundación Bancaja is displaying the entries of the 47th Autumn Photography Salon (Salón de Otoño de Fotografía) at its Sagunto headquarters, Casa Capellà Pallarés; the show stays open until 16 October. Alongside this year's winning images hangs a selection of photographs submitted by the rest of the entrants. The building, which includes an assembly hall, an exhibition room, conference and seminar rooms and a university library, regularly hosts the foundation's cultural activity across the Camp de Morvedre district.
The Autumn Salon, now in its 47th edition, is one of the longest-running amateur photography contests in the district. That continuity turns every edition into something of a barometer of amateur photography activity in Camp de Morvedre, with participants who return year after year alongside newcomers entering the contest for the first time. The contest has run in Sagunto for nearly half a century and has become a fixture of the district's cultural calendar, alongside the Fundación Bancaja's other regular activities.
The opening ceremony was also the moment chosen to unveil this year's winners. Antonio Atanasio Rincón, from Villarrubia de los Ojos (Ciudad Real), took the top prize — 900 euros, a figure reported by elperiodicodeaqui.com on 16 September when the jury's verdict became public — for his collection Mundo rural (Rural world). José María Rubio Calonge, from Almassora, took second place (450 euros) for his series Death Valley; third place, worth 300 euros, went to Sonia Rubert Martínez, from Vila-real, for her collection Ritus y memoria (Ritual and memory).
A total of 24 photographers, with 39 collections between them, entered this year's general category. That is fewer than the 50 collections from 31 photographers submitted to the 46th edition in 2025, when the top prize went to the collection ¡Basta! (Enough!) by Diego Pedra Benzal, according to the Fundación Bancaja's own records at the time.
Alongside the general prize, the Salon keeps a social-prize category reserved for members of the ARSE Photography Group (Grupo Fotográfico ARSE), the association of photographers from Sagunto and Puerto de Sagunto (coastal district) that currently has about 40 members, both veterans and newcomers. Sixteen photographers entered this category with 28 images; Pedro Díaz Hermoso came first with Peter II, followed by Begoña Cosín Moya with Farolas (Streetlights).
Beyond competing for the Salon's social prize, the ARSE Photography Group has staged its own collective shows in the city on other occasions, such as 'EnfocArse', held at the Casa Municipal de Cultura in Puerto de Sagunto (the coastal district's municipal culture house). That parallel activity has made the association one of the reference points for amateur photography across both parts of the municipality.
The same ceremony was used to hand out the Fundación Bancaja's 2026 Mobility Grants (Becas Movilidad) in Sagunto: three grants worth 1,000 euros each, intended to fund training placements at Spanish or foreign institutions and open to graduates or students living in the Camp de Morvedre district. Iván López Cortes, Helena Lorente Graña and Claudia Mor Llombart are the ones who won these three grants.
Belén Genovés, who has led the Fundación Bancaja's local delegated commission in Sagunto since July — the body that drives the foundation's cultural and social activity across the Camp de Morvedre district — chaired the grants jury; Aurelio Gómez, Ana Cerezuela and José Caballer joined her on the panel.
The foundation's cultural work in the city has a local root: among the historic savings banks that formed the wider Bancaja Group was the former Caja de Ahorros y Socorros de Sagunto (Sagunto Savings and Aid Bank), which explains the foundation's continued presence in the municipality through contests such as this Autumn Salon. The foundation thereby keeps up a steady cultural presence in the district, combining artistic contests, exhibitions and grant programmes aimed at training young people from the area.
According to elperiodicodeaqui.com, with additional information from the Fundación Bancaja and Wikipedia.