Photography & Modern Architecture in Spain, 1925–1965: Research Project

Research Project

Abstract

!e study of architecture, and particularly of the great legacy of modern architecture, has substantially been achieved from its irrefutable documentary sources: the pho- tographs. Since the advent of photography in the mid-19th Century we are witnessing a blissful basis for its pairing with architecture. Once buildings were depicted, they could start to be studied, classified and dated. Later on, the revolutionary character that brought the modernists to the fore found in photography the opportune instrument to undertake its propaganda in mass media that valued these architectural objects as paradigmatic icons that should be emulated. At the same time, and apart from customer’s satisfaction, committed architects understood that the photographs of their buildings were the final crystallization of their work and what really remained beyond their personal satisfaction. In these reciprocal needs, the figure of the ar- chitectural photographer was consecrated as the technical — and even artistic — specialist in shaping this particular visual story.