• Wednesday 21st September
18:00 - Presentation of the speakers
Ricard Marco, President of Fotoconnexió (chair for the lectures).
18:10 - Third lecture
Barcelona, an anthropological file
Project carried out on Poble Nou beach in Barcelona between 2006 and 2010. The study questions uses of certain types of photography linked with social control, and employs a scientific aesthetic very similar to the one used by the anthropologists of old in the 19th century, or the police. But unlike these archives, the series is devoid of any repressive elements, given that they eliminate all information linked to the identity of the individuals. The series embodies the ideas put out by the French politician and scientist François Arago in 1845: “It will be no longer necessary to embark on long journeys to go in search of human beings [...] They themselves will come to us, owing to the incessant progress of civilisation”.
Lecture given by Jordi Baron Rubí (antique dealer, photographer and collector of antique photographs. He studied photography at the Photographic Studies Institute of Catalonia. His personal work is linked with the world of photographic collecting and the historical past. His most memorable series included Ídols (2003-2004), Barcelona fitxer antropològic (Barcelona, anthropological file) and Domus Barcino. He has exhibited his work in galleries such as the FORVM and the Cadaqués, both in the city of Tarragona. His work forms part of collections such as those of Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie de Amsterdam, the Ordóñez-Falcón collection in San Sebastián and the Pierre Borhan collection in Paris).
18:45 - Fourth lecture
The failure of The Automatic Photograph Company, the origin of the “minute camera”
In 1887, the Barcelona photographer Joan Cantó i Mas patented the first automatic photographic machine, a precursor of the photo booth. In 1891, Isaac Joel, a well-known London diamond merchant, set up two companies throughout the world (except for Spain) to market an improved version of Cantó’s camera. However, both these companies – The Automatic Photograph Company and The Automatic (Foreign & Colonial) Photograph Company – went bankrupt a year later. In light of this failure, one of the companies’ directors, Ladislas Nievsky, patented the first semi-automatic camera, which also featured an interior laboratory, just the automatic devices did, but which did not have any mechanisms and was easier to transport. In time, these types of appliances became known as “minute” cameras.
Lecture given by Salvador Tió i Sauleda (a graduate in Chemical Science from the University of Barcelona. A scholar of antique photography and a founding member of Fotoconnexió. Member of the Cercle Cartòfil de Catalunya and the Catalan Society of the History of Science and Technology. In 1981 he launched the first workshops on old photographic processes at the IDEP school in Barcelona. He is the author of such works as “Procedimientos alternativos en fotografía” (Alternative processes in photography) in Foto-Diseño (1988); “Desarrollo de la técnica 1839-1935” (Development of the technology 1839-1935) in PhotoVisión (1985). He has published Ferran i Paulí: La instantaneidad en fotografía (Ferran i Paulí: Instantaneousness in photography, 2007) and Innocent Paulí i Galceran, una figura polifacètica (1854-1921) (Innocent Paulí i Galceran, a multifaceted figure, 2012).
19:30 - Guided tour of the exhibition
Anònims. Retrats de 1940. Joan Sorlí
Organised by Albert Curto and Laura Tienda, the exhibition curators.
Cycle: Exhibition: Anonymous. "Retrats de 1940"
Organized by: L’Arxiu Comarcal del Baix Ebre, la Residència d’Investigadors del CSIC-Generalitat de Catalunya i l’Associació Cultural Fotoconnexió.
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