BRINGING HERITAGE CLOSER. PHOTOGRAPHY IN NAVARRA. FUNDS AND COLLECTIONS

August 28, 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. Photographic Fund of the University of Navarra

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

conference room from exhibition of the Photographic Fund
 

The Photographic Fund has as mission statement contribute to the understanding of photography as a heritage asset as well as the History of Photography in Spain and for this purpose has set three main goals:

1. to guarantee the adequate conservation of 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 that, together with digital conversion, avoids the continuous manipulation of the originals.

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

JUAN DOLCET, Antonio Saura (1960) Chemical developing gelatine
 

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

3. knowledge Promote dissemination actions to make the contents of the collections available to society through the organization of exhibitions, the publication of publications, easy access and consultation, and the establishment of agreements with other institutions for the realization of joint projects.

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

Publications of the Photographic Fund of the University of Navarra