The Rus family were pioneers in photography in Barcelona, from the 1880s until the second decade of the 20th century. Purveyors of photography products, they also experimented with photographic techniques and materials and were photographers and cinematograph operators.

Of all of Fernando Rus Cózar and Anna Busquets Cózar’s six children, it was Fernando, the oldest, who went down in history as a pioneer of the image in Catalonia. On the paternal side of his family, his father began to advertise the sale of photography products at his chemist on Carrer Sant Pau in 1877. Ten years later, the business was thriving and changed its name to Casa especial en artículos para la fotografía Fernando Rus [Fernando Rus Specialty Shop for Photography Items]. His mother’s side of the family, headed by Antoni Busquets, had a photography product and equipment business on the same street. Following the Rus patriarch’s death in 1894, the shop was renamed Viuda de Fernando Rus [Fernando Rus’s Widow] and, after Anna Busquets’s death in 1912, Hijos de Fernando Rus [Sons of Fernando Rus].

Given the environment in which he was born and grew up, it is no surprise that Fernando Rus Busquets also went on to embrace a career in the world of the image. In the field of photography, he was active in early associations, joining the Sociedad Fotográfica Española [Spanish Photographic Society], founded in 1891. He won the silver medal in the society’s contest that year. At the turn of the century, Rus Busquets won several more photography prizes. In 1902, he won the contest held by the Institut Agrícola Català de Sant Isidre [Sant Isidre Catalan Agricultural Institute]. The following year, he won a bronze medal in the Centre de Lectura de Reus’s [Reus Reading Centre’s] national photography contest.

His work reached the public thanks to his close relationship with the Editorial Antonio López publishing house and via two channels, the publishing house itself and the press. In terms of publishing, he was the photographer for the book series Barcelona a la vista [Barcelona in View], published between 1896 and 1897. Covering a variety of topics, the collection featured the city’s main buildings and monuments, images of the streets of different neighbourhoods, and costumbrista scenes of everyday life. Three years later, he contributed photographs to the Junta de Museus de Catalunya [Catalan Board of Museums] for the catalogues for the 1898 Fine Arts Exhibition.

Rus Busquets’s gaze was fixed on current affairs, and he took some of the first news photographs in Barcelona, capturing events such as the funeral of Frederic Soler (1895), the snowfall of 1887, or the funeral of Francesc Rius Taulet (1889). By the 1890s, he was publishing in the press, often working with Federico Fernández Gimisó, the company’s cinematograph operator. In 1900, they published a series on a solar eclipse in several outlets.

Two years later, in 1902, Rus Busquets opened his own business on Ronda Universitat. That year, the magazine ¡Cu-Cut! described him as ‘our intelligent artistic collaborator’. He also occasionally published in magazines such as La Ilustración Artística.

To follow his trail, we must turn to L’Esquella de la Torratxa and La Campana de Gràcia, where he published topical photographs. L’Esquella also featured some of his portraits in its ‘Les grans figures’ [Major figures] section, as well as stereoscopic photographs of landscapes and local customs. ‘F. Rus’ was a regular photo credit in the weekly throughout the first decade of the 20th century.

Rus Busquets was also a pioneer of cinema. According to Luisa Suárez, in 1899 he joined the Sociedad Cinemática Internacional [International Cinema Society]. His contributions took the form of films of emblematic areas and newsreels about Barcelona. He died in Cuba in 1914, survived by his wife, Irene Casasa Vendrell, and one son.

Some of his work can be found in the Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona [Barcelona Photography Archive].