Isabel Azkarate (San Sebastián, 1950), considered the first female Basque photojournalist, has devoted her life to recording, with her camera, thousands of fleeting encounters with peculiar characters who have captured her attention.

Isabel’s empathy and boldness have been her main passport. Even today, at 76, she feels an insatiable curiosity for the geography of human experience, an urge to walk the streets observing, connecting, and capturing those around her.

She trained in documentary photography in Barcelona, but it was in New York City in 1980 that she found the perfect stage to develop as a street photographer.

During this early professional stage, her work was strongly influenced by the American school and its key figures, such as Lisette Model.

Through the practice of street photography, Azkarate discovered her authorial voice, defined her gaze, and established her way of approaching reality. Her strong attraction to portraying marginal communities—people as anonymous as they are extraordinary—aligns her body of work with that of photographer Diane Arbus.

In San Sebastián, where she currently lives, she is often seen walking the streets, mobile phone in hand, still avidly photographing neighbors, friends, and strangers.

The exhibition Azkarate vs Azkarate is the result of a challenge proposed to the artist by Xiaomi: to present recent photographs taken with a state-of-the-art mobile device, confronted with a selection of images from her archive spanning 40 years of practice. Past and present come together in a refreshing and surprising dialogue that demonstrates that Isabel’s methodology remains unchanged and her gaze as genuine as ever.