March 27, 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONTEMPORARY ART LESSONS IN NAVARRA

Around the image. Photographers and society in 19th and 20th century Navarre.

Dr. Asunción Domeño Martínez de Morentin.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

Photography is a finding that is made public in France in August 1939, causing such a great impact that in less than five years it is known in all the countries of the developed world. In Spain, the first public demonstration of photographic imaging took place in Barcelona just three months later, in November 1839. From then on, photography began to make its presence felt first in the main provincial capitals and, later, in the rest of the cities and in less important localities.

In Navarre, the oldest known reference letter dates back to 1843 and corresponds to a French photographer, Mr. Constant, who, on his way to another place, stayed a few days in Pamplona offering his services in an improvised studio. This would be the general trend that would predominate in the capital of Navarre until the 1950s, when the first stable photographic studios began to open. These establishments, preferably located in the place of the Castle for being a wide and well illuminated urban space, will acquire, nevertheless, a greater peak in the last third of the XIX century. At that time we have the presence of at least four professionals, Emilio Pliego, Agustín Zaragüeta, José Roldán and Félix Mena, who will contribute to the implementation of the studio portrait and the consolidation of the photographic business, giving rise to true family sagas.
 

Zaragüeta, Portrait in studio, 1885

Already in plenary session of the Executive Council twentieth century, the activity of professional photographers will diversify, especially from the decade of the 20s, as a result of the appearance of small format cameras that will favor the exit of the photographer of the cabinet. José Galle, Rafael Bozano, José Luis Zúñiga, Francisco Zubieta or Andrés Retegui are some of the names that will cover the professional photographic activity beyond the middle of the century, not only in the field of studio portraits, but also in documentary or press reporting, some of them becoming correspondents of media with even national coverage. The 60s and 70s marked a decline for the photographic programs of study and, therefore, for professional photographers who, from the 80s onwards, resurged again, but with a different profile . 

In addition to the professional photographer, there was the figure of the amateur, who became particularly active from the end of the 19th century onwards. Being able to develop photographic activity with greater freedom, amateurs made important contributions that had an impact on the development of this medium. Their production ranged from documentary photography -Julio Altadill, Aquilino García Deán, Julio Cía, José Esteban Uranga or Nicolás Salinas, the latter in Tudela- to creative and artistic photography -Miguel Goicoechea, Pedro Mª Irurzun, Lydia Anoz or Nicolás Ardanaz-, without forgetting the foreign photographers who visited and took pictures of Navarre, such as Diego Quiroga y Losada, José Ortiz Echagüe, Ramón Masats and Inge Morath, among others.

Ardanaz, Landscape

Navarre's photography has developed a wide range of genres, starting with portraiture, the most prolific of all, in its studio version or popular types. In the former, the formulas established in the 19th century remained unchanged until the 1920s, but it was especially from the 1940s onwards when it evolved with an innovative language based on inclined framing, angulations, contrasted lighting... Along with the portrait, there is also the landscape -both natural and especially urban-, the reportage of monuments and works of art, the photography of political-social events, the still life, advertising and fashion photography; and a very distinctive chapter is the San Fermin festival and, especially its running of the bulls, which with its dynamic character has attracted the attention of the internship totality of local photographers but also of foreigners.

 

Irurzun, Henryk Scherling, 1940

Finally, photography in Navarre had the support of a varied clientele, as a result of the progressive introduction of the image in all spheres of society. The new visual culture that was being forged attracted from the individual client, belonging to any social sphere to the institutions, both public and private, without forgetting the important contribution made by stores and the graphic press in the field of commissions. Photography found in cultural magazines -LaAvalancha, Pregón, bulletin of the Commission of Historical and Artistic Monuments of Navarre- and local newspapers its main means of diffusion.