Joan Andreu Puig Farran:

The decade spanning from 1929 to 1939, between the Barcelona International Exposition and the end of the Spanish Civil War, was a dynamic, turbulent, and conflict-ridden period—much like those years throughout a Europe on the brink of World War II. As in other places, in Catalonia the stark contrast between the urban bourgeoisie—integrated into the commercial and industrial economy—and the less privileged sectors, both in the city center and the outskirts, became increasingly evident. Through the lens of photojournalists, newspapers and magazines left a daily imprint of this context of disparity and inequality: political rallies, incidents, sporting events, scenes of poverty, lottery draws… An endless variety of moments was captured in their images, forming a complex and fascinating testimony to those times. 

Joan Andreu Puig Farran: A Decade of Turmoil (1929–1939) is the first exhibition dedicated to the photographer from Lleida who settled in Barcelona in 1920, Puig Farran. At the start of the Republican period, between 1929 and 1931, he was already working as a photojournalist for the daily press. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he moved to various battlefronts, both in Aragón and on the island of Mallorca (1936). After the conflict ended, he went into exile in France and was held in several internment camps—first French, then Francoist. Upon returning to Barcelona in 1945, since he was unable to resume his work as a photojournalist under Franco’s regime, he dedicated himself to industrial and tourism photography and partnered with his friend Antoni Campañà, with whom he created the CYP postcard brand in 1952.

The exhibition is composed of a selection of glass plates preserved by the artist’s heirs, along with a large number of original prints kept in the archival collections of La Vanguardia. Additionally, it is complemented by several publications from the period that show how the images were presented to the public. 

Curators: Arnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta and Antoni Monné Campañà

The perspective of press photographers during the early decades of the 20th century is essential to understanding a period in history when events unfolded at a rapid pace. At a time when a large part of the population had regular access to newspapers and magazines, readers could learn about news such as the global economic crisis of 1929, the proclamation of the Spanish Second Republic in 1931, and the establishment of Catalan autonomy in 1932. The rise to power of Hitler in 1933 and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in the summer of 1936. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, political revolutions took place, such as the events of October 1934, and women fought to gain increasing freedoms; at the same time, the Church sought to maintain control in the face of the breakdown of conservative morality. All these traces of contradictions and contrasts were captured by photojournalists like Joan Andreu Puig Farran, who immortalized these events to illustrate newspapers such as La Humanitat, Esplai, El Matí, L’Opinió, and La Vanguardia.