26 March

lecture series
HOLY WEEK CYCLE

Photography at Easter Week in Pamplona

D. Emilio Quintanilla Martínez
Chairof Navarrese Heritage and Art

The purpose of this intervention is to review the different photographs that have been taken of the Good Friday procession organised by the Brotherhood of the Passion in Pamplona.

Undoubtedly, a religious event that has been repeated in a more or less similar manner at least since 1887, when the Brotherhood was founded, to the present day, must have been the subject of numerous snapshots, most of which we imagine to be unpublished, lost or very similar.... In all of them, the aim was to record the testimony of a unique moment, of a religious or aesthetic emotion, and through them we can get a glimpse of the feeling of Pamplona over more than a century, the evolution of the procession itself, of its components, its artistic value, the transformation of the city, its streets and its people, its streets and its people, and its history, of its streets and its people, and the way in which they have participated in this procession, which, although it does not possess extraordinary artistic richness, is not lacking in it either, and is highly representative of a particular and constantly evolving time, taste and socio-economic and ideological circumstances.

Moreover, the photographs have often been able to aesthetically surpass the object represented, as they have been able to enrich it with the resources inherent to this art form, such as contrasts, framing or the singularity of the chosen occasions.

We have, of course, made a selection which we have grouped into different chronological blocks:

- The historical photographs of the Brotherhood of the Passion, preserved in its file, many of them framed, through which we can know especially the figures of the procession in the last years of the 19th century.
 

Figurants of the procession organised by the Hermandad de la Pasión (Brotherhood of the Passion)
Last years of the 19th century

- The photographs in the Baleztena Collection, with snapshots dated between the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Those published in the magazine Pregón between 1942 and 1978, which dedicated one of its four annual issues to this topic, and, although the artistic quality and reproduction is poor A, they are very interesting for understanding the evolution of the procession and how Easter Week was experienced over almost four decades, during which time Pamplona society underwent a profound transformation.
- Joaquín Arazuri's book Pamplona, calles y Barrios, published between 1978 and 1980, also provided us with different and interesting historical photographic testimonies.
- In the commemorative edition of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Brotherhood, the Brotherhood made a great effort to reproduce its premises, floats, equipment and events, an effort that was redoubled on the 125th anniversary, bringing out a magnificent volume in which outstanding photographers of the time took part: Larrequi, Urtasun and, above all, Zúñiga.
- Finally, the photographic competitions organised by the Brotherhood in recent decades have given many photographers the opportunity to experiment with reproductions of these same subjects, sometimes in unique or avant-garde ways.
 

This image of the recumbent Christ, a work by Vallmitjana (1886),
is from the photographic competitions organised by the Brotherhood of the Passion in recent years.