Ortiz Echagüe

José Ortiz Echagüe (Guadalajara, 1886 - Madrid, 1980) stands out in the national art scene as a pioneer in pigmentation techniques for photography and, above all, for putting these techniques -characteristic to pictorial photography- to the service of ethnography. This comes at a time when, with the burden of the crisis of 1898, the concept of nation is being reconstructed from a political and philosophical viewpoint, by looking at history and tradition, the invariants. His work, published mainly as photo albums from the Thirties -España, tipos y trajes (1933); España, pueblos y paisajes (1939); España mística (1943); España, castillos y alcázares (1956)- make up the most important documentary body on a historical legacy such as historical clothing, religious events (weddings, funerals, Easter) and other traditional events. The photographs gathered in this exhibition are mostly from the Ortiz Echagüe Legacy, University of Navarra and all have been made using the carbon Fresson printing process, except two, which have used the bromoil process. The selection covers a long and consistent career, from those images with family members and friendly events conforming with European pictorialism: Sermón en la aldea (1909), Taller de costura (1905), Retrato de mi esposa I (1916); or Danza al viento (1912); until some of his later landscapes, such as Siroco en el Sahara (1964), he abandons the practice of photography in 1968.