June 23, 2010

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

SAN FERMÍN CYCLE

The Sanfermines photographed by Zaragüeta

D. Francisco Javier Zubiaur Carreño.
Museum of Navarre

The Zaragüeta Fotógrafos studio was opened in Pamplona by Agustín Zaragüeta Colmenares in 1879, who was succeeded by his son Gerardo Zaragüeta Zabalo in the early 1920s, and continued at place del Castillo 31, attic, until the 1950s, when he moved to Amaya 20. Little is known about Agustín, except that he seems to have associated with Leopoldo Ducloux, a photographer of French origin with whom he learned the official document in Paris with the successors of the Chevalier opticians, and attracted him to Pamplona from San Sebastián, where he was born in 1858.

It is difficult to distinguish Agustín's photographic work from that of his son Gerardo before 1930, since they shared a studio. However, we know that Agustín specialized in studio portraiture, which he did in natural light, without spotlights. Gerardo learned to photograph with his father, from whom he inherited his taste for portraits, but he was very attracted to reportage photography, not in vain was partner graphic of the Pamplona newspaper, Basque nationalist, "La Voz de Navarra", as well as the Club Atlético Osasuna, whose headquarters was near the studio.

The photographic work of Gerardo Zaragüeta Zabalo offers no doubt of authorship from 1930 to 1960, within the set of glass plate-plates that the Museum of Navarre preserves in its entirety. In them we can appreciate not only portraits and reports, of varied typology, but also photos thematically related to the architecture and urbanism of Pamplona, the artistic heritage, the commercial product, the rural landscape and the patron saint festivities.

Among them, those of Pamplona, the Sanfermines, have great prominence. The lecture has its colophon with the presentation and commentary of a sequence of images of them, relative to the bullfighting cycle (from the uncaging of the bulls in the old corrals of the Gas, the running of the bulls in all its trajectory, the release of heifers in the place, and the buffo shows of the bullring of Pamplona, with a special attention to the tendidos in which the people of Pamplona attend en masse; the peñas de mozos and maduros, in different situations; the popular giants; and the fair attractions, are other topics covered.

Zaragüeta Zabalo shows that he has developed one of his father's facets, his interest in all social strata, as demonstrated by his penchant for representing, in thematic sub-series, family groups, processions, parades and processions, celebrations, political rallies and a variety of human typology treated individually or in group.

Lastly, the lecture website focuses on Gerardo's photographic internship and his method of work, especially in terms of reportage, which today makes it possible to have a photographic collection of more than 4,000 plates of great interest to document, especially in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, in the city of Pamplona.

ZARAGÜETA ZABALO, Gerardo. "The Running of the Bulls by Estafeta" (Dec. 1930).
Museum of Navarra.

ZARAGÜETA ZABALO, Gerado. "Los de Siempre" (Dec. 1930).
Museum of Navarra.

ZARAGÜETA ZABALO, Gerardo. "The porter Pedro Trinidad before the European Queen of the Comparsa de Gigantes" (Dec. 1930). Museum of Navarre.

ZARAGÜETA ZABALO, Gerardo. "The porter Pedro Trinidad before the European Queen of the Comparsa de Gigantes" (Dec. 1930). Museum of Navarre.

The lecture by Professor Francisco Javier Zubiaur Carreño took place at the Civivox Condestable in Pamplona.