Reference code

CAT INSPAI 1

Level of description

Collection

Title

Emili Massanas i Burcet Fonds and Collection

Date(s)

Inclusive dates: 1845-1991

Volume and support

14,591 positives on paper (collection: 12,350; personal fonds: 2,241); 6,000 glass plates, positives and negatives (collection); 1,600 medium-format plastic negatives (collection); 10 direct positives (collection); 18 film stocks; 72 photographic apparatuses, additional material, and 546 boxes of original photographic material (collection); 25 units of documentary and research material on the history of photography (personal fonds), and personal library (collection).

Name of producer(s)

Emili Massanas i Burcet

Producer history

Emili Massanas i Burcet (Pont Major, 27 September 1940 - Girona, 26 August 1991) was a designer, amateur photographer, image collector, scholar, and promoter of the photographic heritage of Girona province. During the 1960s and 1970s, he began to recover the history of photography and of photographers in Girona province. He discovered over a thousand photographers that had worked in Girona province since 1845 and he located their establishments. Drawing on this information, he developed a census of photographers that had worked in this area since the middle of the 19th century. This work also allowed him to locate photographic collections of old images, and he encouraged the public institutions to protect this heritage. He began to exhibit photography in 1974 at the exhibition Girona en photographia (Girona in photography), held in the Fidel Aguilar municipal hall during the Fira de Girona fair. In it, he gathered the work of Valentí Fargnoli using a collection of glass plate negatives owned by Sebastià Martí, photographer and employee of Fargnoli. From then and until 1990, he held some 20 exhibitions together with additional material such as leaflets, books, albums, catalogues, etc. In 1988, he ended the most intense phase of data collection and tried to systematise and organise it all in an article for the Provincial Council's magazine Revista de Girona: 'Els retratistes, cronistes fotògrafs d'una època' (Portraitists: the photo-chroniclers of an era). From an archival perspective, and also in 1988, he published 'L'arxiu d'imatges, propostes de classificació i conservació' (The image archive: proposals for classification and preservation) together with Ramon Alberch and Pere Freixes. He died on 26 August 1991 at 50 years of age. After his death, the fonds was left to his brothers Francesc and Lluís, who in 1993 signed it over to the Girona Provincial Council. At the same time, an archive that is now part of INSPAI was created in his name.

Archive history

The collection and the fonds were deposited in the Girona Provincial Council in 1993. Once the Emili Massanas i Burcet Archive was created, the first full inventory was carried out. Next, work on the description and conservation treatment began, which today is still ongoing due to the amount and the diversity of the photographic material included. In 1994, we began to copy the fonds for its preservation with the reproduction of a small selection in Kodak Photo-CD format and plastic copies of the glass plate negatives. The digitisation process was resumed in 2009 and is ongoing today. In terms of preventive conservation, since 2008, 90 per cent of the fonds and the collection has been cleaned and (when necessary) restored.

Details of entry

The personal fonds and the collection were acquired on 7 September 1993 following a deposit agreement between the Image Archive (today INSPAI) and Mr Lluís and Mr Francesc Massanas i Burcet (brothers of Emili Massanas i Burcet).

Scope and content

This photographic collection unites Mr Emili Massanas i Burcet's personal fonds and the collection he created throughout his activity as photography historian. In the more personal and family sphere, we can find portraits of his ancestors taken by photographers such as Unal or Mur, among others, and reports on Emili's social life and his circle of friends. The chronological scope spans from the end of the 19th century until 1990 and, geographically, it is focused on Sant Feliu de Guíxols, the original municipality of the Massanas family, and Girona, their place of residence. Within the collection, we find a large group of postcards from the beginning of the 20th century with images of Girona province, the rest of Catalonia, Spain, and Europe. The subject matter is varied: there are images of landscapes, towns, the Costa Brava, daily life, group portraits, studio portraits, portraits of well-known photographers such as Valentí Fargnoli, Adolf Zerkowitz, Llucià Roisin, Ricard Mur, and Josep Esquirol, among others. We also find examples of old albumen, cyanotype, and gelatin processes from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and from a geographic area that spans from Girona province to South America. The subject matter is focused on studio portraits and landscapes, with important photographers such as members of the Unal family, Ricard Mur, and Pere Ferrer-Barber, among others. Another group worth highlighting is the group of stereoscopic photographs from 1920 to the mid-1930s. They include images of landscapes in Catalonia and above all in Girona province, and others that illustrate subjects of ethnological interest, exotic landscapes, and scenes for recreational or educational purposes. We also have albumen prints by 19th-century photographer Jean Laurent. The direct positives and the oldest objects in the collection from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century are mostly studio portraits of photographers and images of unknown geographic areas. The documentary material and the personal library gather information on the history of photography and photographers in general and specifically in Girona province.

Conditions for access

Free and open access.

Related documentation

Author and date(s)

SGM, January 2010. Updated in June 2013.

Sources