Agustí Centelles
09 Jun - 13 Sep 2009
Agusti Centelles
Famille de républicains
Barcelone, 25 juillet 1936
Tirage argentique
Archives Centelles, Barcelone / © ADAGP, Paris, 2009
Famille de républicains
Barcelone, 25 juillet 1936
Tirage argentique
Archives Centelles, Barcelone / © ADAGP, Paris, 2009
AGUSTI CENTELLES
9 June - 13 September 2009
This exhibition retraces the career of Catalan photographer Agustí Centelles (Valencia, Spain, 1909 - Barcelona, 1985) between 1936 and 1939, including his experience of the Spanish Civil War and his internment in the Bram camp in France.
A renowned photojournalist in the troubled pre-war period, Centelles reacted to the putsch of the Extreme Right by joining the Democratic defence effort in 1936. In 1937 he was taken on by the government propaganda office, becoming one of the great image-makers of the Republican resistance.
Like thousands of other Spaniards, he reacted to defeat in 1939 by going into exile over the Pyrenees. He was interned in the Bram refugee camp, where he continued to take photographs in spite of the extremely difficult conditions. When he decided to flee occupied France and make his way secretly back into Spain, he was forced to hide several thousand negatives in a house in Carcassonne in order to protect the identities of people who might have been recognised by Franco’s police. Forty years later, after the Caudillo’s death, Centelles returned to France and reclaimed many of his archives.
The exhibition presents some hundred photographs, taken during the Civil War and during the nine months at Bram. Most have never been seen in France. There is also a collection of documents (magazines, letters and notebooks).
Exhibition curated by: Miquel Berga and Manuel Cirauqui
9 June - 13 September 2009
This exhibition retraces the career of Catalan photographer Agustí Centelles (Valencia, Spain, 1909 - Barcelona, 1985) between 1936 and 1939, including his experience of the Spanish Civil War and his internment in the Bram camp in France.
A renowned photojournalist in the troubled pre-war period, Centelles reacted to the putsch of the Extreme Right by joining the Democratic defence effort in 1936. In 1937 he was taken on by the government propaganda office, becoming one of the great image-makers of the Republican resistance.
Like thousands of other Spaniards, he reacted to defeat in 1939 by going into exile over the Pyrenees. He was interned in the Bram refugee camp, where he continued to take photographs in spite of the extremely difficult conditions. When he decided to flee occupied France and make his way secretly back into Spain, he was forced to hide several thousand negatives in a house in Carcassonne in order to protect the identities of people who might have been recognised by Franco’s police. Forty years later, after the Caudillo’s death, Centelles returned to France and reclaimed many of his archives.
The exhibition presents some hundred photographs, taken during the Civil War and during the nine months at Bram. Most have never been seen in France. There is also a collection of documents (magazines, letters and notebooks).
Exhibition curated by: Miquel Berga and Manuel Cirauqui