Producer history
Ernest Costa Savoia (Bescanó, 1940) is a photographer and naturalist writer with a collection of approximately 460,000 images. His passion for nature dates back to his childhood, spent among the mountains and forests on the outskirts of his town. In addition, he would go on family outings, during which he soaked up the landscape and rural way of life. At the age of twelve, he moved with his family to Barcelona, where he went to school.
His passion for nature led him to become an amateur and self-taught photographer. He has produced this fonds with the intention of explaining in images everything he observes on outings and in nature. In 1967, he began making audiovisual representations of different subjects related to the places he visited. This became his professional activity, with the collaboration of respected figures such as Ramon Folch, Enric Laurreula and Ovidi Montllor. By 2009, he had made a wide range of documentary pieces and co-authored more than twenty, most with the aim of communicating a sense of country and identity to students. Still, photography is the medium he has used most throughout his career.
Without ever losing sight of the pedagogical purpose, he has explored different ways to communicate his interests. He has published in and contributed to newspapers and magazines such as Avui (50 reports on little-known places and aspects of the Catalan Countries), El Periódico de Catalunya, Descobrir Catalunya, El Temps, Presència and Compartir Muntanya. He has provided the content for numerous television series and radio programs within Catalonia, including, among others, Geografia de Catalunya (TVE-2, 1985) and Paisatges al punt (Catalunya Ràdio, 1999-2002). He has written more than a dozen books, including Viatges amb els pastors transhumants: Per les cabaneres de la Catalunya nord-occidental entre l¿Éssera i el Segre (1987), El temps del carbó: De les Gavarres al Montseny i a la vall de Llémena (1995, with Xavier Cortadellas), Els paisatges i el temps: El territori català al llarg de l¿any (2004) and Pous de neu i glaç (2016).
In addition, has received such awards as the Premi Trementinaire d¿Honor (2004), the VII Premi Flama de la Llengua (2008), the Premi Joaquim Codina (2014), the Premi APPEC (2011) and the Creu de Sant Jordi (2021).
Photography has contributed significantly to his evolution as an ethnographer, naturalist and deep connoisseur of the Catalan language. Currently, he lives in Fontcoberta (Pla de l¿Estany), with his wife, Anna Bricha Ricart, faithful assistant and collaborator.
Archive history
Ernest Costa has always kept the fonds at his home, in Fontcoberta (Pla de l¿Estany). Specifically, it is located in an attic with very high ceilings and large windows, in an optimal, cool environment without large temperature fluctuations. The fonds consists of around 460,000 photographs: 35 mm slides and 6 × 6 cm negatives, in polyester plastic support. Mostly color, they were made with Kodachrome 25 ASA, Kodachrome 64 ASA and Velvia 50 ASA films (Fuji).
The slides are in their original boxes and the negatives in plastic sleeves. The material is placed in folders and stored in customized drawers. The structures that support the drawers are made of wood and lined with cork.
Costa and his wife, Anna Bricha, devised a description method in which each image has a registration number: each box has a number from 1 to infinity, and each slide bears the number of the box that contains it and the order number in which it is placed. The same method is used with the negatives, but these are placed in sleeves instead. This registration number is linked to three paper lists:
1/ Fields: registration number, date, reason, place and region.
2/ Fields: registration number, date, reason, content and municipal term.
3/ Files sorted alphabetically by reason or keyword, with the reference numbers of the associated photographs: in blue (the slides) and in red (the negatives). Likewise, the related terms are indicated; for example, ¿graze¿ as a main term and ¿flock¿,¿shepherd¿ and ¿pasture area¿ as secondary terms.
As a result of this system, 75-80% of the fonds are described.
After some initial contact in 2011, in 2013, INSPAI, Centre de la Imatge agreed with the photographer that he would choose 395 slides for the Centre¿s technicians to assess. The following year, the collaboration agreement was signed, which provided for the digitization of a part of the fonds selected by the photographer.
On behalf of INSPAI, Diego Fontalba was in charge of overseeing the project in which the entire fonds would be digitized. In the first phase, this task was carried out by people hired by the Consell Comarcal del Pla de l¿Estany at the INSPAI facilities. On January 20, 2014, Ernest Costa submitted the first album of images to INSPAI, which was digitized by JP and returned on February 26. J. P. continued to digitize albums until June 27, as did XC (June, 2014 - April, 2015) and MC (May 5 - May, 2015).
At that point, INSPAI handed over, on a temporary basis, to the Consell Comarcal del Pla de l¿Estany the computer equipment needed for digitization. The work was carried out by JC (December, 2015 - February, 2016) at the Pla de l¿Estany Regional Archive. Finally, the work was carried out again at the INSPAI facilities by interns from Escola Universitària ERAM: F. C. (February - March, 2016), D. C. (August 2017) and, finally, L. D. (June 2018).
Digital images were uploaded to the corporate repository to begin their description. Based on the lists by regions provided by the producer, the data were entered into the INSPAI catalog by IP (February-May 2015), D. P. (November 2015 - March 2016) and AM (May-July 2016). As of 2017, technician Diego Fontalba describes, reviews and validatesthe images for display on the Centre¿s website.
By the end of 2022, about seven thousand records, 60% of the fonds, will have been described and can be consulted on the web www.inspai.cat. The description of the fonds is expected to be completed before 2025.
Details of entry
On March 27, 2014, the Diputació de Girona, the Consell Comarcal del Pla de l¿Estany and Ernest Costa Savoia signed a collaboration agreement to digitize part of the photographic fonds created by the photographer, with the aim of contributing to its preservation and avoiding color deterioration due to the nature of the photographs. Costa non-exclusively transferred the usage rights to the Diputació de Girona.
The term of the agreement was one year, except for the mentioned assignment, which was not limited temporally or territorially. On April 28, 2015, it was extended for another year from the end date of the first contract.
