Passion and Vision: Kati Horna and Margaret Michaelis in the Spanish Civil War
A conversation with Almudena Rubio

In this conversation on Thursday March 5, 2026 (from 17:00 to 18:00 hrs) we will shed light on the incredible life and work of Kati Horna and Margaret Michaelis, two Jewish photographers who moved from Eastern Europe (Hungary and Poland) through Berlin and in the 1930s temporarily settled in Barcelona, where they put their camaras in the service of the anti-fascist struggle and the anarchist social revolution during the Spanish Civil War.

Almudena Rubio working at the IISH. Photograph by Chiara Barraco.

Almudena Rubio will share her groundbreaking research on Horna and Michaelis, which started when she identified the work of the two photographers within the photographic archive of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), held at the International Institute of Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam.
Rubio’s research has significantly expanded existing knowledge about the role of photography in the Spanish Civil War, as it shifts the focus toward women photographers and toward visual practices linked to anarchist propaganda. At the same time, it has marked a turning point in the scholarship on Horna and Michaelis themselves. Moving beyond the predominantly visual analyses that have characterized earlier studies, Rubio proposes an approach that understands life and work, passion and vision, as inseparable elements shaped by the political commitment of the two photographers.

Almudena Rubio is a researcher at the International Institute of Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam and PhD candidate at the University of Tarragona, Spain.
She is an art historian and the curator of several exhibitions in Spain and the Netherlands based on her research, most recently Las cajas de Amsterdam: Kati Horna y Margaret Michaelis en la Guerra Civil (The Amsterdam Boxes: Kati Horna and Margaret Michaelis in the Civil War), part of the festival PhotoEspaña (2022-2023). She has published on women photography, anarchism, and the Spanish Civil War in both academic journals (Historia Social) and newspapers (El País).

Details event
When: Thursday March 5, 2026, 17:00 – 18:00 hrs
Where: Utrecht, Drift 27, room 0.72 (entrance through the UU library)
Chair: Dr. Gianmaria Colpani (Utrecht University)

Please feel welcome at this (pre)Women’s Day Event!