David Lerma
Marbella
Friday, 31 May 2024, 15:46
Juan Carlos Teuma (born in La Línea de la Concepción in 1949) has just published his memoirs in English, Hunting Lights in Shadows: Memoirs of a Paparazzo. The book, written in collaboration with his son Jonathan, covers 50 years of his career as a celebrity photographer on the Costa del Sol. The story of this Gibraltarian, who documented the then-vibrant social life of Marbella with his camera for 45 years, is as thrilling as an adventure novel.
“My father was Gibraltarian and married a girl from La Línea, which was very common then. I was raised in Tetouan until I was eleven. My father was a British consul but my mother moved back to La Línea to give birth. She didn’t want us to be born in Morocco,” he says.
His professional career began as a camera assistant at GBC, the public television of the Rock, after finishing his studies in school. “I was very interested in photography, but I thought Gibraltar was too small and I didn’t want to be a civil servant.” So Teuma went to London for a while. Upon his return, he had the opportunity to work as an assistant to a photographer from a cruise company that stopped in Gibraltar. “We spent a couple of months in the winter cruising the Canary Islands, Venice, Senegal…,” he recalls. The photographer, of Greek origin, appreciated his work and suggested that he continue. “I spent a year and a half on board.” Teuma photographed tourists during their land excursions and developed the photos in the lab.
The photographer retired shortly after to set up a studio in Athens. Teuma didn’t want to follow him. “When I arrived here, it was the best time in Marbella, but I didn’t know it then.” He started working in a photo lab near the bullring. “I was a pioneer in quick photos for tourists. I also worked in hotels but. I felt there was something more. One day, I met some Italian paparazzi. It was when Franco had just legalised the wearing of bikinis. I was already known, I had been given assignments and I spoke English,” he adds. His photos sold well among the British and Spanish press: Hola, The Sun, News of the World, Daily Mirror.
The Italians wanted to find the beach where the Duchess of Alba sunbathed in a bikini. “I knew that her house led directly to the beach, and I knew when she was going out because the servants would come out to prepare the chairs and towels.” “They [the Italians] came with a massive lens,” he recalls.
The Italians’ photos weren’t very good so they offered him a chance to take some for them.
“I went with the longest lens I had, I think it was a 300mm. The duchess came out, but she was too far away. I kept getting closer while shooting until she saw me. She called me over. “Were you taking photos of me?” she asked. “I was trying to” I told her. “I’m new at this. I don’t want to bother you.” In response, Cayetana Fitz-James cheekily said, “Well, you just should have asked!” And Teuma was thus able to arrange a posed photo with her and her husband, Jesús Aguirre.
