Image building at Ortiz Echagüe

 28 OCT '25 - 11 OCT '26
Curators: Martina Massad and Andrea Vargas
Space: Espacio Ortiz Echagüe (floor -1)

José Ortiz Echagüe (1886, Guadalajara - 1980, Madrid), photographer of 20th century Spain, managed to capture the essence of a Spain that, in his opinion, was at risk of disappearing in the face of incipient European modernity. Based on a meticulous construction of the image, he managed to portray the diverse cultures of the peninsula, using technical manipulation as a tool for artistic creation.

Labeled and perceived as a pictorialist photographer, but self-described as a documentary photographer, Ortiz Echagüe turns the everyday into a perfect mise-en-scène, where the different elements that make up the image intertwine to create a unique characterization.

Thanks to a long artisanal process, the image was meddled with and somewhat fudged, probably with the desire to beautify it. This technique was Fresson's direct charcoal process, a photographic process that allows to obtain images based on mineral pigments (instead of the silver salts common in modern photography). All this gives Ortiz Echagüe's images a very characteristic texture, which makes his work easily recognizable.

Precisely, this capacity for manipulation inherent to the process resulted in several copies until the result he wanted was achieved. But these tests were not discarded; rather, each image became a unique piece: castles that disappear, costumes that change, and the suppression of any hint of modernity that does not fit the narrative.

These copies are part of the photographic catalog of the Museo Universidad de Navarra and, preserved in its archives, are considered independent works of art, which has facilitated the analysis and observation of the photographic process that builds an image and how it evolves with each reproduction.

In this way, this exhibition aims to present the figure of José Ortiz Echagüe and some of his most emblematic photographs. But it also explores this more unknown aspect of his work: the creation of reality and image through the manipulation of photography.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF: