A beam of light falls, generous and precise, illuminating several engineering students who can be seen in the distance inside a quarry. The image is from 1916. In another, a young woman swings, happy and uninhibited, on the beach of Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona), while in a different snapshot, another young woman, with a curious look, poses in front of a mirror with your camera and tripod.
These images, which have amateur photography in common, are part of the exhibition The Domestic Camera. The photographic hobby in Catalonia (ca. 1880-1936), which can be seen until May 12 at the KBr center of Fundación MAPFRE in Barcelona.
The authors gathered in this exhibition do not enjoy the professional recognition of the big names, although their work went far beyond the amateur who only takes out the camera when he goes on a trip or witnesses an event, but rather they are people who dedicated Much of their time devoted to photography, they strived to progress technically and thematically to the point of, in some cases, being able to participate in contests and exhibitions or market their images. That differentiates a simple amateur from someone who acts like a professional without being one.
Photographs, objects and documents from the period make up the nearly three hundred pieces in an exhibition that is related to a peak moment in the history of Catalan photography: that of the beginnings of amateur practice of the discipline in the 1880s and its evolution until the outbreak of the Civil War in the summer of 1936. The domestic camera takes us to another era, making us travel to a time that will not be foreign to us. In reality, many of the topics that already interested us in the past are the same ones that can now be seen multiplied in the photographs that accumulate on our cell phones and spark “Likes” on social networks.
Domestic photography enjoyed great popularity, without distinguishing between social classes, genders and ages, in addition to being a reflection and an evolution of the country's visual culture. In Catalonia this hobby took root strongly in the early 1880s. “On the one hand, the first associations for photography enthusiasts were promoted and the first Catalan excursion entities were founded, which soon developed a marked interest in photography, like the Center Excursionista de Catalunya (1890)”, explains the curator of the exhibition, Núria F. Rius.
The camera, increasingly cheaper and easier to use, became another accessory of modern times thanks to technical improvements and changes in commerce and advertising, the organizers point out. “An entire network of specialized stores and photographic sections was set up in large commercial stores, to which must be added a powerful editorial sector of specialized magazines that, with more than a dozen publications, turned Catalonia into the epicenter within the Spanish State. ”adds F. Rius.
The initial profile of the amateur photographer was that of the bourgeois who linked his love for photography with other class values such as those of nation, family and high culture, with family and group portraits, at home, in his summer resorts and at social events. . But the hobby spread to other audiences. Middle-class children and women also acquired a Kodak—among others—being visual chroniclers of family life, and the working class was able to access photography through the work of athenaeums and working-class cultural associations.
The appearance of silver emulsion in gelatin, which made it possible to obtain instant photographs, boosted the amateur medium definitively. And commercially they took advantage of it: one of the claims was to capture those happy and unrepeatable experiences that could fall into oblivion. In The Domestic Camera the public will be able to see some of those endearing moments of leisure of family and friends from more than a hundred years ago, something that could not have been possible without the collaboration of seventeen public and private institutions, such as archives, museums, libraries and research center, as well as nine private collections.
Furthermore, the amateur photographer of the late 19th century and early 20th century could already go with his camera more easily to public places, hence images of the urban and social transformation, of some local events and of the atmosphere that were preserved. I was breathing in the streets. The camera could also accompany you when sightseeing, which is why images have also been collected from frequent destinations such as the northern coasts of Spain or Andalusia and the Balearic Islands, along with Europe, the United States and business trips to Asia and the East. Next.
Some of the images that can be seen at the KBr center also exemplify the link between scientific, sports and tourist excursions—as a group activity on holidays—and the popularization of photography. “Behind this excursion there was a desire to free oneself from the oppressive yoke of the industrial city. His way of using the camera had to do with that ideal feeling and state, in which camaraderie and contact with nature seemed to transport the working class to a pre-industrial stage and to a rural world from which a large part came," he points out. the curator of the exhibition.
Finally, another notable issue is the closeness of some of the photographs in the exhibition to that more intimate world of a personal photographic archive. Since it was possible for the same person to take charge of the entire photographic process, from taking to developing and copying on paper, images of both female and male nudes have been preserved. Thus, this exhibition promoted by Fundación MAPFRE contributes, in part, to knowing the history of the private life of Catalan society, but also to knowledge of the social and cultural history of the country in capital letters.
