Since it was established in 2022, the MOP Foundation in the relatively little-known city of A Coruña in Galicia, Spain, has hosted a surprisingly high-profile roster of photographic greats in its on-site gallery – among them, rare and expansive exhibitions of the work of Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, and Helmut Newton, each best known for their fashion photography. And, as of this week, it is the turn of legendary American photographer Irving Penn, who is celebrated in what will be his first retrospective on Spanish soil (showing 23 November 2024 – 1 May 2025).
The reason is the MOP Foundation’s eponymous founder, Marta Ortega Pérez, a Spanish businesswoman who is chair of Inditex, currently the world’s largest fashion retailer (she is also the daughter of Amancio Ortega, head of the Ortega family and the owner of Inditex). Best known for its ownership of high street behemoth Zara, Inditex is based in Arteixo, Galicia, a coastal town just 20 minutes or so outside of A Coruña, where the MOP Foundation is based. Of the foundation’s aim, Ortega Pérez says it is ‘focused on holding world-class exhibitions [on] three pillars: A Coruña, photography and fashion’.
