An indisputable touchstone of Catalan and Spanish artistic heritage photography, Adolf Mas was also the visionary founder of Arxiu Mas [the Mas Archive], wellspring of thousands of images from the first decade of the 20th century onwards. The importance of that work has overshadowed other facets of the photographer, such as his work as a portraitist or photojournalist.

Adolf Mas was born into a large family in Solsona (Lleida), the seventh of eleven children. He studied arts and law and, following in his father’s footsteps, became a solicitor, practicing until 1887. It is not known why or when he moved to Barcelona. In 1890, he married Apolònia Castañeda, with whom he had two sons, Pelai (1891–1954) and Màrius (1896–1902).

It is unclear when Mas first entered the world of photography. In 1901, he founded Hèlius, a business selling photographic material, which he shuttered in 1905 to start a new company, Établissements Mass, at 277 Carrer de Rosselló, which was also the site of his family home. The new company operated two other locations in the city until, in 1914, it was reconsolidated at the Carrer de Rosselló premises and rebaptised with the Catalanised name Estudi de Fotografia A. MAS (until then, it had advertised in Catalan, Spanish, French and English). In the early 20th century, business boomed with commissions from abroad: the studio became Arxiu Mas [Mas Archive] and was relocated to 5 Carrer de la Freneria.

Mas worked as a reporter between 1900 and 1917, cultivating his career in two main stages: from 1903 to 1910, a highly productive period, and from 1913 to 1917, when his journalistic activity declined due to his specialisation in art and heritage photography, his age and, from 1913 on, his intense collaboration with his son Pelai.

He published in a variety of media outlets, including La Fotografía Práctica: Revista mensual ilustrada, Ilustración Artística, Ilustració Catalana and its supplement Feminal, El Gràfic, Los Deportes, La Senyera: Setmanari d’Informació Gràfica, and La Jornada Deportiva, as well as the newspapers El Día Gráfico and La Veu de Catalunya, amongst others.

One of his earliest collaborations was with Los Deportes, which commissioned him to cover the second assembly and related festivities of the Federación Gimnástica Española [Spanish Gymnastic Federation] in Barcelona, the results of which were published between September and December 1900. Although he contributed to a wide variety of publications – such as Ilustración Artística, which, in 1903, featured his photographs of new recruits pledging allegiance to the flag – his most intense relationship was with Ilustració Catalana. Mas collaborated with the weekly from the first issue of its newest iteration, launched in June 1903, until its final issue, published in 1917, by which time his contributions were far more sporadic.

In Ilustració Catalana, he published both new photographs and photo essays about Barcelona, such as ‘La gran vergonya’ [The Great Shame] in the wake of the Setmana Tràgica [Tragic Week, a series of bloody clashes between the Spanish army and workers in Barcelona in July 1909] (8 August 1909); the ‘Reform’ of Via Laietana (15 March 1908); ‘Laboratori microbiològic’ [Microbiological Laboratory] (25 November 1906); ‘Banquete de la Victoria’ [Victory Banquet] (26 November 1905); and ‘Casa de la Maternitat’ (6 December 1903). He also did features on life and news in Catalonia, such as the Suria floods (1907), the 1st Catalan Cup voiturettes race in El Garraf (1908), or lace-making along the Catalan coast (1906).

Mas died on 1 December 1936, at the age of 76. Days later, the Catalan government placed the archive under administration to preserve it. His son, Pelai, on campaign in Andalusia, returned after the war to run it. In 1941, the nearly 106,000 negatives it held became part of the Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic [Amatller Institute of Hispanic Art].