Francesc Català–Roca: images to reveal the obvious Barcelona that we do not see

2024-02-29T07:24:16.765Z

Highlights: Francesc Català–Roca: images to reveal the obvious Barcelona that we do not see. The Skin of Barcelona is a visual ode to the city where the inexhaustible innovative spirit of one of the leaders of Spanish photography is reflected. The book remained unpublished and was recently found in the archive of the College of Architects of Catalonia. Two hundred images that tour the city through facades, textures and ornaments. An itinerary that, far from being predictable, “reveals the obviouscelona that we don’t see”.

An unpublished book by the famous Catalan artist is published, a visual ode to the city where the inexhaustible innovative spirit of one of the leaders of Spanish photography is reflected.

“Among some of the things that I still want to do is the book

The Skin of Barcelona

, which would show the passage of time through the facades of the city,” wrote Francesc Català-Roca (Valls, Tarragona, 1922 - Barcelona, 1998) in his memoirs, published three years before his death.

It was therefore a book meditated with the perspective of someone who has spent his life looking, accustomed to delving into nuances in order to capture the essence of a place.

Likewise, it reflected the desire of a restless spirit willing to continue innovating and experimenting with photographic language until the end.

Thus, the photographer searched his archive and, combining images dating from the fifties with others, mostly from the eighties and some taken in his last years of life, he cut out cardboard that he covered with facing images, almost all of them vertical, presented without captions or texts that would condition their interpretation.

Double page of the book 'The skin of Barcelona', published by Enciclopèdia / Barcelona City CouncilFRANCESC CATALÀ-ROCA

The book remained unpublished and was recently found in the archive of the College of Architects of Catalonia.

Two hundred images that tour the city through facades, textures and ornaments.

An itinerary that, far from being predictable, “reveals the obvious Barcelona that we do not see”, as pointed out by Joan Ricart, editorial director of Enciclopèdia Art i Grans Obres, responsible together with the Barcelona City Council for the recent publication of the monograph.

“It was a rather random discovery,” recalls the editor.

“The main editorial approach was to treat it as if it were a facsimile, respecting the will of the author, who during his lifetime could not afford to make a book without an editor.

In this case we have faithfully reproduced the model that he left and, in order not to dirty the images with any type of text, we have moved all the information to the notebook that accompanies it."

The skin of Barcelona

is presented as the photographer's tribute to the city where he arrived at the age of nine.

Where he was polishing his gaze, always attentive to the urban landscape in his formal and aesthetic search.

It is the journey of a

flâneur

who focuses his gaze on a series of fragments, details that contrast to offer new meanings and delve into the nooks where the pulse of the capital is filtered, faithful to a humanist gaze that never hides the weight of history.

This is the fifth book that the photographer dedicated to Barcelona throughout his career.

In 1954 he published the first:

Barcelona (Editorial Barna)

, with a prologue by Luis Romero, where he focused his gaze on the choreography of the streets.

“It is not a compilation of monuments, but of life, of small anonymous stories,” highlights his son, photographer Andreu Català Pedersen, during a conversation with

Babelia

A look that expresses a subjective interpretation beyond the document, a practice in which it coincides in time with that of William Klein or Robert Frank.

Double page of the book 'The skin of Barcelona', published by Enciclopèdia / Barcelona City CouncilFRANCESC CATALÀ-ROCA

“Recognized as a master of black and white, my father had the courage to reinvent himself and dedicate the years of his maturity to perfecting the use of color,” adds Català Pedersen.

“He knew he was extemporaneous.

He said that photography was a very young medium and that is why there could be no historians of photography but only observers.

It was his father, the photographer, publicist and writer Pere Català i Pic, a man very aware of avant-garde currents, who was his first and great influence.

“They both had to abandon their studies, one at the age of 12, and the other at the age of 13, but they continued their learning by developing their interests,” recalls his descendant.

“Català-Roca would begin as his father's apprentice in 1935. In 1953, his first exhibition would be held, presenting large enlargements mounted on boards, as Edward Steichen would later do when he curated the legendary

The Family of Man

in 1955. In 1952 , was already a few months ahead of Henri Cartier-Bresson when in an interview he spoke of “the most eloquent moment.

In Catalonia nothing was heard about the French photographer until Oriol Maspons, [who moved to Paris in 1955] published two interviews in the magazine

Arte Fotoográfico

My father met him in 1956, Miró introduced him to him during a trip to the French capital.”

Català-Roca devoured everything that was image.

“Whether it was Goya's works or the stickers that came with the chocolate,” says his son.

“Barcelona offered him a feast on a visual level, with traces of the Roman city, the Gothic quarter, modernism, the Eixample, the sea.

Observing the light was a banquet that fed his images.”

The Skin of Barcelona,

close-ups predominate within a motley aesthetic where black and white alternates with color and the human figure gains great presence through different manifestations, either through the sculptures that adorn the facades, or in graffiti and graffiti, or in the reflections of the sea.

Double page of the book 'The skin of Barcelona', published by Enciclopèdia / Barcelona City CouncilFRANCESC CATALÀ-ROCA

“He shot very little and almost never repeated the photograph,” writes journalist Lluís Permanyer in a text that is included in the notebook.

“He told me that he limited himself to “doing it” only twice: the first with his imagination, and the second in front of the subject.”

“He played with reality in order to translate it into images,” adds Català Pedersen, “that's why he could wait for a priest or a soldier to pass under the sculpture of Hercules holding a stone.

There was always a second intention in him.

Maspons used to say about the photographer that he worked like an insect, without distraction and in a very direct way.

“The most important thing my father taught me was respect for what exists.

There is no need to invent anything,” highlights Català Pedersen.

“I used to say that one can make a sculpture, a painting, a song, one could also compose a still life and photograph it or portray someone, but what photography offers is something that cannot be achieved through any other discipline: capturing, capturing what It occurs when one walks down the street.

From the beginning he sought the idiosyncrasy of photography detached from pictorial tradition, strictly photographic, which is why he was very respectful of reality.

He didn't have to move much, just by seeing how the water moved in the port he saw a photo.

The skin of Barcelona

'

Francesc Català-Roca.
Encyclopedia / Barcelona City Council.
2 volumes.
312 pages.
75 euros.

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Source: elparis

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Francesc Català–Roca: images to reveal the obvious Barcelona that we do not see

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