Brangulí. Barcelona 1909–1945

With this exhibition of photographs by one of the greatest exponents of 20th-century photojournalism, the CCCB opens a time capsule of the city in its pivotal years.

An alternate name for this exhibition could easily be, 'Photography as a sociopolitical statement'. Josep Brangulí has been described as one of the pioneers and best practitioners of photojournalism of the 20th Century, due to his ability to record with his camera some of the most important moments of modern Spanish history. His worked focused on the urban, social and political contexts, and has become an important part of the historical archive of Barcelona, including a primary source of information of the Civil War and the Republic, as well as industrial transformation of the city.

The history of Barcelona during the 20th century has been convulsive, enmeshed in conflicts, and yet inspiring in its independence between 1909 and 1945. The opportunity to discover it through the printed images taken by Brangulí conveys the distinctive feeling of travelling back in time. When we talk about cities and try to understand them, it's really important to have access to these hidden images that delineate the poetry of the everyday, common life and the beauty of the ordinary that surrounds the history of a place. According to the exhibition curators, "Brangulí, who survived all the political vicissitudes of his times, accompanied the city in which he lived with an eye to the changes taking place, its transformations, its people and their activities. He used his profession to keep up with the pace of urban metamorphosis, turning his work as a photographer—almost like a conjurer—into an agency, an archive or whatever it took to carry on working his magic".

Top image: Parade of the Naval Arrows of the Falange Youth Organisation before the Count of Pace and other Italian dignitaries. Barcelona, 1939.<br /> Above: Construction of the Mirotres, the first reinforced cement ship built in Spain. Malgrat de Mar shipyard, ca. 1917. — Top image: Parade of the Naval Arrows of the Falange Youth Organisation before the Count of Pace and other Italian dignitaries. Barcelona, 1939.
Above: Construction of the Mirotres, the first reinforced cement ship built in Spain. Malgrat de Mar shipyard, ca. 1917.

In his book The City and Death,[1] Bogdan Bogdanovic wrote that "Every great novel carries one big city inside and every great city hides within, at least one big novel"—a quote that makes me think that every photo taken by Brangulí also carries one big city inside, a big city called Barcelona. From the political clashes that took place there in 1909, known as the Tragic Week [2] to the second major international exhibition in 1929, this images shows the political life of those years, focusing on its leaders and popular mobilizations or even the exchange of World War II prisoners in the port of Barcelona in 1944. Another topic that seems to be important for Brangulí was the urbanization of the city. The urban landscape at that time was in constant change. When Barcelona was bombarded for three days from March 16th to 19th in 1938 [3], the city wasin ruins and in the need of a huge reconstruction. In this context, the documentation generated by these photos is a source of information of this crucial period in Catalonia.

Looms at the Manufacturas Valls, S.A. factory, Colonia Valls, Navàs, 1941–1944.

Brangulí was a definitive flâneur. He spent much of his time walking the Eixample, the Gothic Quarter and the Riviera, as well as the peripheral areas like Tibidabo, Montjuic, the Somorrostro and the Llobregat basin. On these sites much of the city's industry and architectural density settled there, and Brangulí was there to document it. He wanted to record the transition of industrial urbanism and its social effects, the way that industry was redrawing the city, its dynamics in architecture. The diversity of the work of Brangulí represents a complete overview of the Barcelona of the first half of the 20th century, including issues as Society before the Republic 1931–1936, Concrete ship building, the Exchange of World War II prisoners, Trams, War and the Post-war years, among many others; he takes the visitor not in to a museum or a exhibition, but into a time travel machine.

Visiting this exhibition makes it easy to understand how people used to live, behave, work and play in Barcelona during those pivotal years and suddenly, every single photograph becomes a sociological document of the city.

Electoral propaganda posters. Barcelona, 1932.

Visiting this exhibition makes it easy to understand how people used to live, behave, work and play in Barcelona during those pivotal years and suddenly, every single photograph becomes a sociological document of the city. Susan Sontag [4] wrote in her book On Photography that photography, though not an art form in itself, has the peculiar capacity to turn all its subjects into works of art. She's describing what you can feel when looking at Brangulí's images, the time capsule transformed into a work of art.
Ethel Baraona Pohl

Puppet show on the terrace of a bar. Barcelona, 1910–1919.

Brangulí. Barcelona 1909–1945
Curated by Valentín Vallhonrat and Rafael Levenfeld
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Montalegre 5, Barcelona
8 June to 23 October 2011

Toy factory, paint studio. Barcelona, ca. 1914.

NOTES
[1] The City and Death, Bogdan Bogdanovic from the book "Balkan Blues: writing out of Yugoslavia" by Joanna Labon. Northwestern University Press, 1994.
[2] Carolyn P. Boyd, Praetorian Politics in Liberal Spain [visited on 18th July 2011].
[3] Barcelona was bombarded during the Civil War on March 1938. More info at barcelonabombardejada [visited on 18th July 2011].
[4] On Photography, Susan Sontag. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.

Brangulí. Barcelona 1909–1945

With this exhibition of photographs by one of the greatest exponents of 20th-century photojournalism, the CCCB opens a time capsule of the city in its pivotal years.

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