User:Writingformediagroup/sandbox

History of Spanish Photojournalism

Spanish Photojournalism developed at the beginning of twentieth century and was closely tied to the cultural, historical and political discourse of the time. The Spanish colonisation of Morocco (1912-1956) shaped the photojournalist practices such that, a plethora of photographs were focusing on reaffirming Spain's Islamic past and portraying the ethnic, social and cultural ties of Spain to the Northern African region. Technical advancements in photography in the 1930's allowed for closer shots and shorter exposure times. This led to a rising interest in photography as publishers began complementing their texts with photographs. During the Civil War (1936-1939) photojournalism served as an objective transcription of the realities of the conflict between the Republican and Nationalist forces and influenced public opinion abroad.

When Francisco Franco rose to power in 1939, photojournalism was constrained by censorship and regulations were put into place to prevent any materials critical of the regime from being circulated. The government controlled the informational input and output and articles and photographs had to be sent for consultation before being published. During this time, photographs mostly featured official events, military parades, government officials or the clergy. A new generation of photographers pushed the boundaries of conventional photojournalism at the beginning of the 1970's. An activist stance and vitality were characteristic of their photographs. The emergence of hand held flashes allowed them to photograph in poor light conditions. After the fall of Francisco Franco in 1975, photojournalism worked as a tool used to advocate for the pro-democracy movement and helped attract international attention in regards to the lack of freedoms and civil liberties.

Beginning of Spanish Photojournalism

The emergence of photojournalism in Spain at the beginning of the twentieth century coincided with the colonial campaigns fostered by the country in Northern Africa. The historical context of the time marked by the Spanish colonisation of Morocco (1912-1956) led to a cultural discourse that emphasised the ties of the Moroccan civilisation to Spain and explored the influences of Spain's Islamic past on Spanish culture and society. These ties were represented on the basis of Spain's Islamic past which spanned eight centuries. The discourse, attesting Spanish-Moroccan fraternity, was transposed in visual form through a plethora of photographs evoking the 'Moorish' trace in Spain. In this context, a lot of reflection was done by intellectuals, politicians and artists on the contribution of Spain's medieval past on the national identity of the present.

Photographic Magazines in the first decades of the twentieth century

The development of photojournalism in Spain led to the creation of new photographic magazines like Nuevo Mundo (Madrid, est.1894), Mundo gráfico (Madrid, est.1911), and La Esfera (Madrid, est.1914), all of which were part of the press corporation, Prensa Gráfica, as well as La Unión Ilustrada (1909, Malaga), Blanco y Negro. Other established newspapers of different ideological orientations, such as ABC, La Libertad, and El Imparcial, began to include photographs to complement their articles in this period. During the first decades of the century, the majority of photojournalists, including those working for newspapers or magazines established later such as Estampa (est.1928, Madrid) and Ahora (est.1930, Madrid) gained notoriety mainly through the work documenting the events that took place during the Rif War. The Rif War, which took place from 1912 to 1927 between the Spanish colonial power and the Moroccan Berbers of the Rif mountain region, was preceded by the Melilla War (1909) in the Rif mines where Rif people attacked Spaniards to prevent resource exploitation.

La Unión Ilustrada

La Unión Ilustrada 19.10.1913

In the times of the Rif War, La Unión Ilustrada became the most sold graphic magazine in Spain in the first decades of twentieth century, and circulated as a weekly since September 1909 until April 1931. The magazine dedicated the most space to cover conflicts spanning from the War of Melilla in 1909, to Kert campaign (1911-1912) and the beginning of the Spanish protectorate, and finally the Annual Disaster of 1921. The magazine was structured in two parts, with the second part- the graphical section, being the most informative. Over 98 photographers worked for this magazine during the conflict including Lázaro, Rectoret, Rubio, Silvo, Beringola, Calatayud, Luque, Las Artes Gráficas, Welkins and Ortiz- and signed their work using their last name or pseudonym.

The readers of La Unión Ilustrada were middle-class and aristocracy and the language used was sweetened to soften the perspective of the conflict and censorship and high patriotism were present. Themes covered by La Unión Ilustrada as well as other notable magazines documenting the conflict through the visual medium include the battles, loading soldiers seen in a highly patriotic light, wounded and dead people, police and regular forces, official visits, life in the camps and the importance of religion. The language of the magazine becomes more serious and a more alarmist vision is conflict is represented since the Annual Disaster in 1921, which caused a huge crisis in the Spanish society.

Colonial photography

Apart from documenting the political and military context, the photojournalist trend of the time, that can be also referred to as colonial photography, involved the use of photographs of women and architecture as key visual representations of Spain's ethnic and cultural legacy and its' Islamic heritage. The publications of the early twentieth century were characterised by an ideological inclination shaped by imperialism, seeking to justify the Spanish intervention in Northern Africa but also, and by traditionalism, preserving a national identity that rejected the effects of modernity.

Photojournalism explored the architectural similarities between main cities of the Spanish Protectorate- Teutan, Chefchaouen and Spanish cities with prominent Islamic heritage- Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Toledo. Both Teutan and Chafchaouen had Andalusi and Jewish quarters constructed by Muslim and Jewish refugees who settled in the Iberian Peninsula during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Revista de tropas coloniales was founded in 1924 by General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano provides and included the work of photographers such as Bartolomé Ros and Mariano Bertuchi. It exemplifies the visual discourse of the time in sections such as La España musulmana which included Islamic art and architecture throughout Spain and Marrueco artístico depicting picturesque scenes of Morocco, images of Islamic architectural styles without accompanying texts or captions.

Photojournalism during this period mystifies spaces within Spain to provide a reconstruction of the shared medieval past of Spain and North Africa. This occurs in photographic reports of Tetuan published in La Esfera in 1922. The caption to these photographs, the only text in the article, reads:

"As we contemplate these narrow and crooked streets, where the Moors of Granada took refuge after having been cast out of their last stronghold by the Catholic monarchs, the image evokes in all its' fullness the picture of that rich Muslim life that pulsed for centuries in Seville, in Granada, in Cordoba, in Toledo".

La Esfera targeted a politically conservative audience and in turn, porivided a positive view of the Spanish colonial ventures in Morocco. Additionally, Mundo gráfico (1916) depicted the 'Moorish streets' of Granada as haunted by exiled kings of al-Andalus "where the tormented and melancholic shadows of the souls of the khalifas still wander". Nuevo mundo (1918) asserted that the cities of Andalusia still retain the mysterious spirit of the Moors, and that their buildings are "human documents, upon which the souls of those who built them and dwelled within them are eternally etched". The desire to reconstruct the premodern past will later become associated with the Spanish nationalist movements of the 1930's.

The images of Spanish women tend to be exoticised in images that are reproduced and circulated throughout the nation, having them seen through an Oriental perspective. They portray the perceived ethnic as well as cultural 'Moorish' legacy within Spain. Mundo gráfico photographically reported images of the Alhambra palace and the local gypsies to evoke the "ancient legends" of "Moorish" Spain to its' readers. The Rommani community of Spain has also been portrayed so that it affirms the ethnic closeness with the culture over which Spain aims to assert colonial authority. However, the "Moorish trace" is not restricted to the Romani people or Andalusia. Magazines such as Estampa and Ahora depicted other regions of Spain where this traced is preserved.

Spanish Photojournalism during the Civil War (1936-1939)

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was portrayed as a struggle between democracy and fascism, due to the political climate and timing. The Republicans supporting the democratic, left-leaning urban Second Spanish Republic fought against the Nationalists, a largely aristocratic, conservative group led by General Francisco Franco. Several officers of the Spanish military initiated an uprising against their own Republican government in Spanish-held Morocco on July 17^th,1936. A wave of uprisings led by other military officers took place in major towns and cities throughout mainland Spain. General Francisco Franco took the reins of the military coup and eventually led the Nationalists to victory, ruling Spain for the next 36 years.

The civil war was a catalyst for some of the most dramatic imagery of the twentieth century. From numerous depictions of the war and its’ effects, one of the most iconic photographs titled “Death of a Loyalist Militiaman (1937)” belongs to Robert Capa. Capa along with other well-known photographers of this time such as Gerda Taro and David Seymour, Kati Horna are often cited as primary representatives of Spanish Civil War photography. Gerda Taro died at the Battle of the Brunette in 1937. Capa tought her photography and naturally her style initially mimicked his, later however she developed an approach of her own. Kati Horna, another well-known female photojournalist, lied new ground in the photography of conflict as she documented the effect of war on the non-combatants. Most of the photographic work of this time was published anonymously, containing only the copyright stamp of the news agency.

Several major news agencies deployed photographers close to the frontlines in the 1930’s. These photographers remained involved from the initial uprisings at the beginning of 1936 up until the eventual collapse of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1939.

The Spanish Civil War also served as a historical milestone for photojournalism, representing the first war to be photographed in the modern sense as covered by a body of professional photographers, engaging militarily in the front lines in towns under bombardment. Their work was immediately noticed not only in Spanish newspapers and magazines but also circulated abroad.

thumb|Death of a Loyalist Soldier by Robert Capa

Advances in photography brought by Rolleiflex and Leica allowed for the close-up action style of war coverage through the visual medium. The medium format Rolleiflex was available to the public since 1929, a twin lens reflex camera allowing portability and reliability. The 35 millimetres Leica was even smaller. The high quality of the lens allowed the small negative to be enlarged in the dark-room, making the camera very practical. 35 millimetres film cameras were the equipment primarily used by news photographers in the front lines. Each film allowed for thirty-six photographs before being reloaded. Freed from the use of tripod and low exposure times, photographers could get closer to the action than ever before. This rising interest in photographs of world events led to the increased emergence of picture magazines which primarily covered news through visual images with very little text. Photographs were also a preferred technique in attracting readers, which fuelled an increased interest of publishers to accompany their text with images.

During the course of the twentieth century, photography gained legitimacy as an art form and profession and subject of study. Many news consumers have deemed photographs as more objective than text in depicting the realities of conflicts, other scholars argue that photojournalism as an established practice was “loosely straddled” related to conventional notions of documentary, news, information, opinion, publicity and propaganda. Generally, it is thought that during the Civil War, photography offered a “visual expansion” of photojournalist practice, that increased truthfulness of news and attracted advocates for the use of cameras in portraying reality. However, both the Republican and Nationalist parties have used propaganda to advocate their views. This pattern was also seen by in liberal democratic states like Britain and France who used photographs of the war to advance their interests. The intervention of these countries in the Civil War was a decision largely shaped by the public opinion, which was informed by photographs as much as by text.

The Spanish Civil War gained unprecedented urgency because of the way it was lived and depicted. The intensity of the photographs are fuelled not only by what they depicted but also from the political and ideological historical context out of which they emerged. The photographic work done during the time of the Civil War show the visual representations of the realities of the time and also, reflect the rising importance of photography in the dissemination and representation of war in the early twentieth century.Most of the photographs are products of the intersection between trajectories of European political history and the history of the media and communications. They serve as remnants of the practice of photojournalism and the representation of war in the early twentieth century.

Photographs From the Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War, a film, honoring the International Brigades in Spain in 1937, has been discovered in the New York office of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincolm Birgade, to show the continuous anti-Fascist struggle and honor their commitment. The film opens up with photographs from some of the more famous battles in which the International Brigrades took part. it demonstrates the commitment Spaniards had during that war, reminding people their struggle between democracy and fascism, and deliberatly asks the audience to bring help. All the photographs from the war are in like ‘’frozen moments’’ which are not specifically meaningful when simply looking at them, but they still represent and are symbolic to the nation. They were not especially reprensentations of five hundred Moorish cavalry charging across the Jamara valley toward the Republican trenches, neither were they representations of battles of American troops. They were there, however, to capture a panoramic view of American volunteers being deloused in March 1938. The photographs evoke not only their own moment but the days and months following it. They were representations of a long period of time, with repeated battles and deaths, all of which would be renamed ‘’the valley of death’’. They were acturally monumental in scale and meaning to the Spanish’s history.

Any ordinary event in those two and a half years in Spain have been recorded, and connected to show people from image to image in a chain, are representations in an especially powerful series of explanations. For example, one of the pictures in the movie is a simple pair of shoes. They were traditional Spanish peasant sandals, serving to represent as figures for the people and their common aims, needs and capacities. Everytime an American volunteer would wear those sandals, he would stand in the people’s shoes and take on their identify ad their anti-Fascist duty. Hence, in a symbolic way, the decision to go to Spain and risk one’s lifee in the anti-Fascist way, is all embodied in the act of wearing a peasant’s sandal. In one of the photographs, an American volunteer lies dead in a pool of his own blood at Belchite. Above his dead-lying body, his alpargatas-clad comrades walk by. In the photograph, only their feet are visible, and they are a representation for their duty : the battle goes and they must go on. They are a figure for the thousands of sacrifices of internatinal volunteers made in Spain.

The most famous Spanish Civil War photograph is Robert Capa’s September 1936 portrait of a Republican militiaman at the point of death. The camera has caught a moment that would be way too fast for the human eye to capture. It therefore suggests that this picture was taken in a dangerous spot, where the battle was taking place extremely close to the photographer’s camera. It was first published in the French magazine Vu in 1936, and reprinted in Life magazine in 1937. It became an icon for the war and remains one of the most famous battlefield images in the history of photography. His willingness to risk his life to get such a close up has become legendary in the world of war photography. It is the point where the status of the war photographer changed during the Spanish Civil War, becoming linked to risk and proximity to death. A good war picture was then automatically linked to endangered body of the photographer.

Spanish photojournalism during the dictatorship (1939-1975)

During the fascist dictatorship (1939-1975) photojournalism was characterised by censorship along with other aspects of media and culture. While it was not possible to publish photographs explicitly critical of the regime, some photojournalists still tried to push the boundaries of their photographic content. For some photographers the purpose was mainly collecting evidence and documenting the events of the time while others tried through transpose their experiences through the visual medium. After the dictatorship was installed through the victory of the Nationalist party in the Civil War, photojournalism became a tool for promoting a fascist ideology. This was achieved through the government closing or confiscating progressive publications, prior censorship (which remained in place until 1966), through the purge of radical journalists and the creation, in 1941, of a public journalism school. A government-issued professional license for journalists was introduced. Photographs and articles were put in circulation nationally and regionally though the government-owned news agency EFE. EFE owned exclusive contracts with foreign news organisations including Associated Press, Agence France Presse, United Press Internatinal; and controlled the influx of foreign news into Spain as well as the flow of information form Spain internationally. A new press law abolishing censorship was introduced in 1966, however publishers were encouraged to submit periodicals for consultation prior to publication. News-papers remained tightly controlled throughout the 1960's and 1970's with monthly and weekly magazines addressing social, political and cultural issues.

La Vanguardia Espanola, a Barcelona-based conservative newspaper, was Spain's largest circulation daily during the dictatorship. Among the most important national-circulation, pro-democracy publications were Triunfo, Cuaderno paea el Dialogo and Cambio 16. While editors constantly tested boundaries of permissible information, in many cases editions were confiscated, publications closed or fined and even imprisonment among other sanctions taken against periodicals, editors and journalists. Photography was the most tightly-controlled medium. Historian Lee Fontanella (1992: 24-49) argued that photojournalism did not exist during the Franco period. Visual poverty of Spanish press photography during the Franco-era was pronounced in comparison to the aesthetically sophisticated press photography of the Second Republic. Franco-era dailies and weeklies largely contained photographs of official events featuring military parades, government officials or the clergy, with photographers being given precise instructions of where to be positioned in regards to the subject. Sports photography, illustrated weeklies and cultural magazines were enjoying more freedom in terms of the photographic composition and topics as they did not directly address political aspects.

During the late 1960's and 1970's advances in technical aspects of photography- availability of hand-held flash and high speed film- made photographers mobile and allowed them to photograph events in poor lighting conditions. In the post-Franco era this new approach became the signature of new Magazines in Spain, while most of the leading Spanish papers remained traditional in their technique, using mounted flashes and working in spaces designated for the press. This difference in approach between the 'young' image makers who adopted new techniques and aesthetics and, the older established photographers was partly generational and partly political. The difference in approaches was to some extent political as some independent photographers used the techniques mentioned to collect evidence or document the activities of the clandestine opposition.

Spanish Photojournalism during the Transition era

After the fall of Francisco Franco, photojournalism acted as a tool for advocating the establishment of civil rights in a time characterised by an unstable political climate. In the early 1970's, in line with a growing opposition movement, pro-democracy photojournalists and periodicals gave voice and visibility to critics of the government and pushed the boundaries of censorship. Photography historians have noted an activist stance of image-makers in the early 1970's and the vitality of their photographs which broke photojournalist conventions. The appearance of photographs that depicted opposition to the current regime in the early 1970's in the mainstream media was limited. Mostly they were the work of freelancers, self-taught photographers with access to the opposition and to events not covered by the press.

Photojournalists in the Transition Era

Jodi Socías, was one of Spain's leading photojournalists in the transition era. He was an activist for the clandestine trade union Comisiones Obreras which provided him with special access to the labour activists and allowed him to take photographs of interest to the news weekly Cambio 16. Another important figure in photojournalism after the fall of the Franco regime was Paco Elvira,who started photographic while a student at Barcelona University in the early 1970's. His photographs of police against student activism could not be published until after Franco's death. Manel Armengol was a freelance journalist who was taking photographs to add to his stories. His pictures of demonstrators advocating for the establishment of democracy were later circulated internationally. Pilar Aymerich was a portrait photographer who started documenting the activities of the political opposition in Barcelona and the absence of political freedoms.

The Demonstration

After Franco's death the country's political climate was uncertain. Despite the lack of press freedom, democracy was debated in the press. The opposition called for restoration of civil rights and referendum on the country's political future. Pro-democracy press kept pressure on the government to move towards reform. The pro-democracy demonstrations of 1 and 8 February 1976 in Barcelona were the largest in the city since prior the Civil War, drawing approximately 75.000 participants. Although the authorities denied permission to assemble, the demonstration continued. Police arrived dressed in riot gear with shields and armed with sticks and tear gas. Demonstrators were beaten and put down on the pavement.

Armengol and other colleagues present took photographs secretly due to the fear that their equipment would be confiscated or they would face arrest. Armengol recalled using an oversized flak jacket to obscure his camera gear. When taking compromising photographs he hid behind other demonstrators to remain undetected, while Pilar Aymerich draped a newspaper over the camera while photographing. The free-lance photographers were marching along the crowd of demonstrators which allowed them to photograph the demonstration with the point of view of both participant and observer.

The photographs of Manel Armengol

Photograph of Federica Montseny speaking at the historical meeting of the CNT in Barcelona on 1977 by Manel Armengol

One of the first photographs of Armengol during the demonstration shows the police attacking seated demonstrators. His most well-known image shows a shows a white-haired, bearded old man seated on the ground together with other demonstrators. His hands are raised to his head to protect himself against the blows of the policemen's sticks who surrounded the group of demonstrators. Another image depicts the solidarity between protesters as they are trying to help the old man stand on his feet while the officers continue to approach the protesters with their sticks ready. Not all the pictures depict violence. Some focus on the tenseness of the situation, portraying dazed expressions, fearful hand holdings, people running.

Armengol's proximity to the events enabled him to make well-composed, dynamic pictures. The emphasis on action in progress and the implied perspective emphasise the action of the police rather than those of the protesters. All the aspects conveyed in the photographs serve for the readers to identify with the photographer and with the protesters.

International Publications

A common way to gain public support for the Spanish pro-democracy movement was to get critical photographs and articles published abroad. Armengol sent off his photographs by using the addresses of the publications written on newspapers. Because of the fear that his mails would be intercepted by the Spanish Police he would go to the Barcelona airport and ask passengers waiting to board to abroad flights to carry his mails.

The New York Times published Armengol's image on the 15th of February with a caption reading "Spanish Police in Action". "Photograph just received" the caption continues and goes on to explain the events: "Police charging into demonstrators demanding home rule for Cataluña...Peasants, factory and office workers took part in the protest." The photograph was called upon to illustrate the oppressive methods of the Spanish state and the strength of popular opposition.

Newsweek also published one of Armengol's images captioned "Spanish police batter demonstrators: "Down with the Fascist Monarchy", accompayining an article that reports on a demonstration in the Basque Country.

National Police beating demonstrators in Barcelona functions as a reference to the atmosphere in Spain and highlights the biggest threat against democratic change- the right wing commanders of the armed forces. The negative image formed abroad helped the opposition advance their case for the establishment of democracy, political freedoms and civil liberties.

Spanish Publications

Three Spanish publications published the graphic pictures showing police brutality: Barcelona-based daily Mundo Diario (1976), local consumer magazine Ciudadano and Por Favor (Marse,1976), a Barcelona-based oppositional satirical magazine.