It is an incomprehensible situation, due to the excessive dilation in time. The photographer Josep Maria Roset (Rubí, 1932-2020), Creu de Sant Jordi, donated most of his archive to the Rubí Town Hall in 1997; a legacy with about 380,000 negatives and about 150,000 photographic objects of great historical value, images that Roset obtained from professionals and individuals. In exchange, he asked that an image center be set up in his city, where one of the most vast and interesting graphic archives of Catalan and state photography could be preserved and exhibited. It was never built. More than 25 years later, after an assignment agreement in 2003 with the council and its extension in 2011, the archive, gigantic in quality and material, continues to occupy the entire ground floor of the family home. And it's deteriorating at full speed; the color, especially.
His daughter, the teacher Gemma Roset - who helped him for years to classify all the material - is desperate due to the municipal paralysis. “In addition to being frustrating and painful, it is incomprehensible that we have waited so many years. It is an abuse on the part of the city council ”, she affirms. "If the consistory cannot assume it, refer it to the National Archive of Catalonia, as we have been proposing since 2014." In fact, the images “would have to be at a certain temperature, without dust, conditions that are currently impossible. We are without space, paying for parking outside the home and everything is paralyzed ”, denounces the family.
But, who was Roset? In 1959 she went to Madrid to work for Europa Press. He was the only Spanish photojournalist who covered the wedding of the Shah of Persia in Tehran. He came to publish in Life magazine the photographs of the death of Dr. Gregorio Marañón. Those prolific years were cut short when he was persecuted by the Franco regime, which forced him into exile in France. But in the 1960s he returned to Catalonia and photographed Carmen Amaya, El Cordobés, Tàpies…. His objective, that of the camera and the staff, was focused on photographing and documenting, with an almost notarial devotion, the democratic transition. He was a theater portraitist for El Globus, CATEX and the Center Dramàtic del Vallès.
Its archive also treasures historical photos of local colleagues, such as those of Santiago Grau Carol. “There is an exceptional image of the bells knocked down from the church, the first day the civil war began. They are very impressive”, recalls the former Minister of Culture of the Generalitat, Joan Manel Tresserras. Roset's good friend, he has spent years claiming it for his professionalism. “From Culture we gave a grant to the city council to create the photography center and it was never done. It has not had a strategic and cultural vision. And look, there is quality material!” exclaims Tresserras. Various personalities from Rubí and from the world of culture have mobilized over the years for the case to be resolved.
Between 2012 and 2014, Roset took an inventory of her archive and worked on her retrospective exhibition. A book about her work was published and the exhibition was held. Just then, she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. In 2018 she received the Creu de Sant Jordi. In 2020, affected by the disease, he passed away. A few months before, the city council contacted the family to find a solution.
“After six months, we reached an agreement to comply in two stages: (the second for new donations). But, unfortunately, it was not finished signing ”, details the daughter. After her death, she and the municipal technicians identify the donated materials and seal those that must leave. In June of last year, a final agreement was drawn up that only had to be signed. But, the consistory argues that it does not have jurists and, "again, everything is blocked," laments the family; hurt and exhausted.
The historian of photography and curator of his exhibition, Laura Terré, explains that Roset "had a very personal look of his own." In her archive "there is the best photojournalism of the sixties, the introspective portrait of characters from culture, theater, at the level of the best portraits of the first Schommer... Also the grace of the social satire of Maspons or Colita . And the audacity, the denunciation and the insolence against the system. You have to rescue it and take care of it now!” concludes the expert.
After two months of insistence from this newspaper, inquiring about how the material is going to be managed, city council sources responded in July. "We have sought that Roset's extensive work is of a public nature because we understand that it is our city's heritage and from the beginning work has been done in this way of preserving local heritage." For this reason, -they clarify- "we are committed to an agreement between the heirs of Roset, the National Archive of Catalonia (ANC) and the city council. We consider that it would be the ideal solution for conservation, dissemination and study and to guarantee its unity”. The sources say that “we have always wanted to go hand in hand with the ANC so that it guarantees conservation in its dependencies. We have requested your intermediation and we are waiting for a response”.
From the National Archive they are aware of the quality of the collection, “but the initial agreement prevents the material from leaving the municipality. From the outset, we are open to collaboration and dialogue, waiting for the resolution between the parties involved”. They point out that this 2023, the consistory “has sent a letter to the ANC requesting intermediation, but legally we cannot act because we are not an affected party. Once the parties reach an agreement, the Arxiu will be open to collaborate for the best conservation, description and dissemination of the photographic collection”. Gemma Roset states: “it is a fish that bites its own tail. If the city council must resolve, who defends the heritage in the face of such abandonment? Little must want the file to treat it so badly, ”she concludes.
