BARCELONA, SPAIN.- The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya is currently carrying out through the 23 of this month only the exhibition “From Paris to Cadiz. Calotype and Collodion”.  The exhibition a selection of 134 pictures – the title of the exhibition being a reference to the romantic travelers of the time, for whom photography was the ideal complement to their literary accounts of the world.

‘From Paris to Cadiz. Calotype and Collodion’ is a selection of 134 pictures from the collection of the Fondo Fotográfico de la Universidad de Navarra. Fundación Universitaria de Navarra. The title of the exhibition is a reference to the romantic travelers of the time, for whom photography was the ideal complement to their literary accounts, and who transformed our view of the world.

‘Calotype and Collodion’ speaks of the reproducible negative/positive processes that overcame the inconvenience of the one-off item produced by the daguerreotype process. The calotype (paper negative) allowed a number of copies to be made, but was criticized for its lack of sharpness, since in making contact prints the light left traces of the paper negative on the copy. Towards the middle of the 1850s, the collodion (glass negative) replaced the calotype, restoring the balance between reproducibility and fine detail.

The photographers were mainly from France and Great Britain. Notable among them were Gustave de Beaucorps, Gaston Braun, Adolphe Braun, Louis-Constant-Henri-François Clercq, Charles Clifford, J.J.A. Clouzard, Frank Charteris, André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, Jean-Jacques Heilmann, Jean Laurent y Minier, Lerebours, Farnham Maxwell Lyte, Alejandro Massari, Louis León Masson, Charles Maufsaise, Auguste Muriel, R.P. Napper, Hugh Owen, E. Pec, Charles Soulier, Edward King Tenison, Charles Thurston Thompson, Joseph Vigier and Claudius Galen Wheelhouse. Some were just passing through Spain, while others eventually settled.

In Spain, too, there were great photographers, such as Antonio Cosmes, Francisco de Leygonier y Aubert, Pablo Marés, José Martínez Sánchez and Rafael Señán y González.

The originals convey to us the sensitivity with which the pictures were taken and give a sense of the feel of the object. Some paper negatives that deserve to be considered as works in their own right have also been exhibited.

These photographers began a completely new creative process with clear references to painting, but other factors also affected them. Most looked for documentary qualities, while subjectively reinterpreting reality. They may not have considered themselves artists in the sense that the pictorialists later did, but their handiwork is unquestionable and their contribution to photography is essential.