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The exhibition Images to remember: the centenary of the Catalonia Ethnography and Folklore Archives (1915 - 2015) has been organised to present a selection of the photographic works produced by this organisation, which was founded in 1915 at the University of Barcelona by Tomàs Carreras i Artau in conjunction with Josep Maria Batista y Roca.
This institution, which is the first in the country to be devoted scientifically to studying ways of life in Catalan society, was also a pioneer in its use of photography as an auxiliary technique for ethnological research studies.
This innovation – using photographic records in fieldwork – took place at the same time as the groundbreaking ethnographic activities carried out by leading anthropologists such as Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski.
The Archive’s photographic collection, created mainly by its promoters, focuses on such wide-ranging subjects as religious activities, traditional transport, popular art, agricultural labour, different fishing techniques, popular architecture, traditional festivals, the stages of life, and many more.
The recovery, research and digitalisation carried out by the Spanish National Research Council on this photographic collection (which has suffered from the effects of time and the vicissitudes of our history, and of which this exhibition is a small sample) enables the general public to find out more about this institution’s ethnographic work and, at the same time, to see images of Catalonia a century ago, many of which have never been displayed before.
This emblematic example of interaction between photography and anthropology represents a valuable example of the possibilities that photographic images can offer us in our constant desire to explore the reality of human life.
Cycle: Images to remember: the centenary of the Catalonia Ethnography and Folklore Archives (1915 - 2015)
Organized by: Residence for Researchers, Institució Milà i Fontanals - CSIC
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