Photographs of Spain in the 1960s. Through this remarkable body of work, Francesc Català-Roca invites us to rediscover the landscapes, people, and everyday life of mid-20th-century Spain. His images capture the character of the country with extraordinary sensitivity, preserving moments that today offer a vivid portrait of a rapidly changing society.
The photographer explained why he deliberately chose not to include captions alongside each photograph:
"The image itself should provide the explanation, and the viewer should make the effort to understand it independently. Our perception of the world is essentially horizontal rather than vertical. We have two eyes positioned side by side, not one above the other. That is why, whenever a choice has had to be made about image formats, cinema and television have naturally adopted the horizontal format."
"Books, however, are a different matter, because if they were designed horizontally, the lines of text would become excessively long. Photographs can tolerate being divided by the unavoidable gutter between two pages. While a vertical image is often best reproduced on a single page, an open book presents two pages at once. For that reason, I have placed two photographs together, carefully ensuring that they do not compete with one another but instead complement each other, creating a new, unified image."
About the Photographer
Born in Valls in 1922, Francesc Català-Roca began his photographic career at an early age under the guidance of his father, the photographer Pere (Pedro) Català Pic, who introduced him to the avant-garde artistic circles of 1930s Barcelona.
Over the course of his career, Català-Roca became one of Spain's most influential and celebrated photographers. He illustrated around sixty books, many of them dedicated to Spanish customs, cultural traditions, architecture, and the visual arts. His work is distinguished by its humanist approach, formal elegance, and exceptional ability to transform everyday scenes into enduring visual documents.
His many honours include the Spanish National Prize for Fine Arts (1983), awarded by the Ministry of Culture, the Creu de Sant Jordi, the Catalan National Prize for Fine Arts, four City of Barcelona Awards (two for photography and two for filmmaking), the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit awarded by the Barcelona City Council in 1993, and the Ocell Solar prize from the Joan Miró Foundation, also in 1993.
