His interest in photography began when he was doing his military service. Bored, he discovered the magazine Arte Fotográfico. He bought a camera with the money he stole from his father, took his first photographs and enrolled in the photographic circle of the Casino del Comercio de Tarrasa.
He started out on the path of reportage in 1953 with a work on Las Ramblas. The following year he joined the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya, sharing experiences with colleagues such as Ricard Terré and Xavier Miserachs. In 1957 he settled in Madrid and travelled around Spain working as a reporter for the magazine Gaceta Ilustrada. That same year he joined the AFAL Group, and together with his friends from the Real Sociedad Fotográfica de Madrid, Gabriel Cualladó, Paco Ontañón, Leonardo Cantero, Joaquín Rubio Camín and Paco Gómez, he created the photographic group La Palangana.
Between 1958 and 1964 he worked for various magazines, such as the aforementioned Gaceta Ilustrada, Mundo Hispánico, Arriba and Ya, and exhibited his work in both solo and group exhibitions. In 1960 he was awarded the Negtor Prize for photography. In 1962 he published the book Neutral Corner, published by Lumen, with texts by Ignacio Aldecoa. In 1963 he published Los Sanfermines with Espasa Calpe, for which he received the Ibarra Prize for the best published book. He also exhibited with the El Paso Group in the Biosca hall in Madrid.
In 1964 he published Viejas Historias de Castilla la Vieja with Miguel Delibes, exhibited with Carlos Saura at the Juana Mordó gallery and made his first documentary Prado Vivo, which won the special prize at Taormina.
Portrait of Ramón Masats in Palencia by Ángel Herraiz.
In 1965 he directed El que enseña, which won the Silver Miqueldi Award at the Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival. He moved away from photography for eighteen years to devote himself to making documentaries for TVE, where the general theme tended to be the peoples of Spain and their customs, with series such as Conozca Ud. España, La víspera de nuestro tiempo, Los ríos, Si las piedras hablaran.... This stage culminated in a feature film entitled Topical Spanish, with his own script and that of the comedian Chumy Chúmez, starring the musical group Los Iberos, Guillermina Motta, Victor Petit and José Sazatornil.
In 1981 he returned to photography and since then has published several books, worked for companies and institutions, including several documentaries for the 1992 Universal Exhibition in Seville, and has given numerous conferences and exhibitions, both retrospective and of his most recent work, in venues such as the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Real Fábrica de Tapices in Madrid, the Palau de La Virreina in Barcelona, the Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander, the Galería Marlborough in Madrid and the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in various cities around the world.
Works in different collections: the Reina Sofía National Art Centre, the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Art, the National Art Museum of Catalonia...
Died in Madrid on 4 March 20244.
Text: ©Ramón Masats
Voice: Marcus O'Donell (IA)
Portrait: Thomas Canet
This audio is part of the Audioteca Fotográfica, a photographic sound archive that captures the gazes and reflections of those who get behind the camera.
(...)
+ info:
www.audiotecafotografica.com
