Producer history
Carme Canals was born in Girona on 17 August 1939 and worked as a kiosk attendant in Plaça Catalunya (Girona), and Joaquim Carreras was born on 17 July 1935 in Bescanó and was a forestry worker in a private company and also a kiosk attendant.
They were both amateur photographers. Their interest began as collectors of old postcards, but in the 1950s Mr Carreras began to take photographs, especially during work when he cleaned the forests and cut down trees in the areas of El Pasteral, Susqueda, and Sau. He captured the construction of reservoirs, bridges, and other infrastructure, some of which has disappeared and some of which still remains. He also took advantage of his work in the forests to carry out photographic reports on different subjects such as landscapes, construction work, charcoal piles, and floods, especially in the 1950s.
In the 1960s, his wife Carme began to take photographs. She captured the last journey of the narrow-gauge railway from Olot to Girona; a report that forms part of this fonds. However, she mainly used photography to capture family events and outings.
At their home, they also keep a large collection of postcards related to Girona province.
In 2009, Mr Carreras decided to donate the couple's fonds to the Centre for its preservation and dissemination.
Archive history
The fonds was kept at the owners¿ home and the images were located in the original glassine paper envelopes. Once it was acquired by INSPAI, it was recorded in the acquisitions register and an inventory was carried out to check the material and to prepare the reports to formalise the acquisition.
In 2010, the fonds was digitised with the Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner. Subsequently, the original images were cleaned, given code numbers, and placed in permanent preservation material.
Today, the original photographs are kept in the INSPAI preservation repositories.
