P·H·O·T·O·G·R·A·P·H·E·R·S

Manuel Mateo (1896–1984)

His relation to the profession of reporter started when he was only 14 years old, as assistant to Alessandro Merletti. In an interview Mateo recalled, “at the beginning my tasks where simple and humble; I drove the popular photographer’s car. I prepared his cameras, very voluminous back then. I was in charge of carrying, on my shoulders, his notorious ladder”. 

Joan Maymó (1892–1960)

Despite being one of the most prolific professionals of graphic design in Barcelona during the first third of the XX Century, Joan Maymó Duarte went unnoticed, as did many of his colleagues.  The first photo of his that we have been able to trace was published in Hojas selectas in 1908 when he was only 16 years old.

Alessandro Merletti (1860–1943)

Born in Italy, this senior member of the photo-journalists of Barcelona was amongst one of the most famous persons of the Catalan capital during the first decades of the past century. He was the first in using motorbike much aware of the required mobility of the profession, a pioneer with the side-car, a precise watchmaker, an inventor of his own photographic devices and the ladder which made him famous, positioning himself above the others this way yielding different point of views. In possession of an extroverted and pleasant personality, one of his most characteristic gestures was to distribute sweets amongst the people that he portrayed.

Carlos Pérez de Rozas (1893–1954)

A polite and conservative person, dedicated one hundred percent to his work, Carlos Pérez de Rosas Masdeu was the founder and patriarch of one of the most important photo-journalistic dynasties of this profession's history in Barcelona. Born in Madrid in 1893, at the heart of an upper class family very closely connected to intellectual, political and military circles, he started to work at an age of 17 at the newspaper Las Notícias, where he carried out all sorts of assistant tasks.

Joan Andreu Puig Farran (1904–1982)

Joan Andreu Puig Farran established himself as a photographer by taking on work generated by the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, when he entered into partnership with his friend Carlos Pérez de Rozas Masdeu. Their company, which was mainly portrait-based, had several names, including “Fotografia Exposición. Pérez de Rozas & Puig” and “Art-Express”. The studio was located at number 6, Rambla dels Estudis, in the building popularly known as the “Palau de Las Noticias” (the “palace” of the newspaper Las Noticias).

Joan Rovira (1895–1930)

Joan Rovira was born in Sants (Barcelona) in 1895 and died suddenly of a heart attack  at the age of only thirty-five years.

Josep Maria Sagarra (1885–1959)

A hard-working, elegant and seductive man, he held an important place in the graphic scene of Barcelona during the 20es and 30es. His professional life -more than 40 years in practise- is one of the largest and most prolific amongst the photo-journalists of his times. From the so-called Tragic Week (1909) to the Civil War his camera was a privileged testimony, always in the street, of the main historical events that marked the day-to-day of the city.

Pablo Luís Torrents (1893–1966)

The everlasting migrant. From Uruguay to Barcelona; forced to exile in France in 1939 and later on in Uruguay; on the way to Argentine and returned to Uruguay. And an unfulfilled dream: returning to the Catalan capital that he missed so much and where he lived out his outstanding photo-journalistic career. He established himself with the Universal Exposition of 1929, and portrayed sporting activities as well as the cultural and political life, especially for various publications of Madrid. In full swing during the war when he was assigned a job that would mark him forever: document the bombings graphically.

Pages