Producer history
Miquel Bataller i Fàbregas (Girona, 1942 - L'Escala, November 11, 2020) was born in the Mercadal district of Girona, to a well-known family dedicated to trade. Following in the family footsteps, he studied business at the Acadèmia Amich in Girona (1956) and specialized in commercial appraisal at the Escola de Comerç in Sabadell (1955-1957).
His passion for mountaineering led him to first experiment with the world of photography when he was just fourteen. To capture the experiences of these trips, he bought his first camera, a Werlisa, and set up a very rudimentary developing laboratory.
Between 1969 and 1970, he contributed to various periodicals, including the weekly magazines Destino and Presència. In 1970, he set up his second home in L'Escala and became actively involved in the life of the town, focusing his interest on portraying the lives of its seafarers. From that time on, he covered many of the social and cultural events that took place there and sent copies of his photographs to various local institutions.
Among his works from this period is a 1973 report in which he photographed the entire L'Escala coast from a boat. In this venture he was accompanied by Josep Cortal (Avi Papat); Joaquim Simón, then secretary of the committee; Josep Ros, skipper of the boat, and the photographer Joan Lassús. The project was completed with thorough research into the toponyms along this stretch of coastline (116 in total). In 2008, he reprised this work with a series of aerial photographs of the same stretch of coastline, taken from a microlight, on which he repositioned those place names.
Between 1975 and 1990 he worked as a lab technician at the Girona company Audifilms SA, editing films, slides, and various school materials on photochemical support. Alongside his professional activities as a technician and freelance photographer, he also taught photography in educational centers, youth clubs, and on the correspondence courses run by the Académia Fotográfica Hispano-Americana (AFHA).
Miquel Bataller died in L'Escala on November 16th, 2020.
Archive history
On 9 October, 2009, Miguel Bataller donated the part of his fonds linked to L'Escala to the town's historical archive; on 5 July, 2010, he presented his assignments for the magazine Presència and the Diputació de Girona to INSPAI, Centre de la Imatge; and then, on 20 November, 2011, he donated yet more of his collection, consisting of 35 mm chromogenic negatives from 1975 to 1989. The collection was catalogued between 2011 and 2012 and housed in conservation material. In 2013, the 2011 addition was cleaned, catalogued and housed in conservation material, and the entire collection was digitised. In 2021, the descriptions were revised and the fonds was made available to users through INSPAI's website.
Details of entry
Donation of the collection by Miquel Bataller i Fàbregas on July 5, 2010, and further material on November 20, 2011.
