Agrupació fotogràfica de Catalunya: orígenes y consolidación (1923 - 1937)

Abstract

Camera clubs and photographic societies have been instrumental in the evolution and the development of photography, since the mid-nineteenth century. They were organizations where amateurs could learn new photographic skills, and push the promotion of photography as an art. Founded in 1923 in Barcelona, the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya displayed an intense activity until the Civil War (1936). The abundant documentation located at the corporate headquarters constitutes an important source of information to study its member composition, its organizational structure, and its activities. Furthermore, the study of the specialized press of the time, provides relevant data regarding the reception and relevance of the society in the environment. In this work we conclude that the AFC, in addition to being the main center for teaching photography in Catalonia, stood out for its dynamism in the organization of exhibitions and salons. In the AFC, the visitors could see the best works of its increasingly renowned members, as well as those of outstanding national and international photographers. As a consequence, aesthetic trends supported by international photographic societies, such as pictorialism, became very present in AFC, as well as timid progressive appearances of more innovative proposals. In addition to this intense participation of AFC in the global network of photographic societies, numerous photographs of members were shown in salons organized by similar entities around the world. This growing internationalization reached its zenith in the mid-thirties, a time followed by a sharp decline in activities due to the Civil War. The intense history left behind, however, remained as a seed, creating the basis for a subsequent recovery and future evolution to the present day.

Date of Award	6 May 2022
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	Gutierrez Garcia, Maria Encarnacion (Tutor) & Juan Bautista Hernandez Gomez (Director)