BRINGING HERITAGE CLOSER. PHOTOGRAPHY IN NAVARRA. FUNDS AND COLLECTIONS

28 August 2012

The University of Navarra Photographic Fund: A Museum dedicated to the conservation and research of the photographic heritage in Navarra
Ms. Asunción Domeño Martínez de Morentin. University of Navarra Photographic Archive

The Fondo Fotográfico Universidad de Navarra is today a Museum, dependent on the Fundación Universitaria de Navarra, which brings together one of the most important collections of photography in Spain. Its origin was the donation of the photographic bequest by José Ortiz Echagüe, which arrived at the University in 1981 and was inaugurated nine years later, in 1990. The initial work of identification and inventory led to others of research of the photographer's work and also of dissemination, giving rise to the first doctoral thesis and an anthological exhibition which covered his extensive photographic trajectory. The year 1999 marked the beginning of the growth of this first bequest with the incorporation of other photographic collections which, following the thematic series defined by José Ortiz Echagüe, completed the sequence from the beginnings of photography to the present day. As a result, the collections of the Photographic Fund currently include 9,000 positive records, 120,000 negatives, as well as other related Materials (cameras, documentary archives, bibliographic collections, etc.).

conference room from exhibition of the Photographic Fund
 

mission statement The Photographic Fund's aim is to contribute to the understanding of photography as a heritage asset as well as the History of Photography in Spain, and to this end it has set itself three main objectives:

1. To guarantee the proper conservation of the photographic collections by establishing a strategic plan based on the principle of preservation or preventive conservation. Measures have been adopted to ensure the physical stability of the works, direct protection, protocols for cases of mobility and an information recovery system has been designed which, together with digital conversion, avoids the continuous manipulation of the originals.

FRANCISCO DE LEYGONIER, Seville. Casa Pilatos (c. 1852) Salt paper from a negative on waxed salt paper.

JUAN DOLCET, Antonio Saura (1960) Chemical developing gelatine
 

2. In coordination with the department of Art History, to promote academic competencies by organising training activities for university students and professionals in the field of photographic conservation and custody, and also by promoting the projects of research in the form of thesis doctoral studies or works related to the collections of the Photographic Collection and the History of Photography in general.

3. knowledge To promote dissemination actions to make the contents of the collections available to society through the organisation of exhibitions, the publication of publications, easy access and consultation, and the establishment of agreements with other institutions to carry out joint projects.

The Photographic Collection will soon be integrated into the recently created Museum of the University of Navarra, where it will begin a new phase with new possibilities to promote and make visible the principles of its mission statement.

Publications of the Photographic Fund of the University of Navarra