XAVIER MISERACHSBARCELONA, 1937

XAVIER MISERACHSBarcelona, 1937

Xavier Miserachs (Barcelona, 1937 - 1998) was one of Catalonia’s leading photographers. His career began when he joined the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya as a teenager in 1952. It was there that he met Oriol Maspons and began what would become a lifelong friendship. In 1954, aged seventeen, he won the 1st Luis Navarro Trophy at the 2nd National Salon of Modern Photography organised by the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya. That same year, he began studying medicine, although he dropped out in the last year of his studies in order to concentrate fully on photography.

The first of the two now-classic exhibitions with photographs by Xavier Miserachs, Ricard Terré and Ramón Masats was held in 1957 at the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya in Barcelona, at AFAL in Almeria, and at the Real Sociedad Fotográfica in Madrid. Two years later, in 1959, the second Terré-Miserachs-Masats show was held at Sala Aixelà in Barcelona. From then on, Miserachs became one of the driving forces behind the renewal of documentary photogra-phy in Catalonia, which picked up the thread of a tradition that had been cut short by the Spanish Civil War. Miserachs published books that have, for decades, shaped the imaginary of Barcelona and the Costa Brava. Barcelona. Blanc i negre (Avmà, 1964), Costa Brava Show (Kairós, 1966) and Los cachorros (Lumen, 1967) are two key works from the photographic avant-garde of the time. Miserachs was strongly influenced by the work of the photographer William Klein and his books on cities, particularly the first one dealing with New York, which was published in 1955. The 1955 exhibition The Family of Man also left a deep impression on Miserachs and his contemporaries, and helped to shape the neutralist poetics that showed the working classes moving towards the new urban environment.

From the late sixties onwards, Miserachs expanded his professional activities to include advertising, photojournalism and editorial photography. In 1966, be began travelling around the world as correspondent for La Actualidad Españo-la, Gaceta Ilustrada, La Vanguardia, Interviú and Triunfo. In 1969 he co-founded Eina art school and became its first photography teacher, and in 1970 he began his occasional experiments with film: he was producer and director of photography for two underground films directed by Enrique Vila-Matas and Emma Cohen, and directed and produced the short film Amén, historieta muda. In the final years of his life, Miserachs became interested in writing as a way of lea-ving a written record of his way of conceiving photography, and he wrote books such as Fulls de contactes. Memòries (Edicions 62, 1998) and Criterio fotográfico (Omega, 1998). His photographs are part of some of the most important collections of the photography of the period, including Fotocolectania and MACBA.

Jerez1960

Vintage print8,6 x 11,8 inches

Dalí y el rinoceronteCadaqués, 1965

Vintage print7,8 x 11,8 inches

Gitanas en Cadaqués1962

Vintage print9 x 11,8 inches

Mari Mistral en el camerino de El Molino1965

Vintage print11,8 x 15,7 inches

La Bòvila de Llinars1952

Printed by the author in 1996 on Agfa paperFiber paper tacked to selenium

9,4 x 6,8 inches

Frontón Palacio1955

Vintage print6,8 x 9,4 inches

Cadaqués1965

Vintage print made by the author9,1 x 11,7 inches

Barcelona1965

Silver Gelatin11,8 x 7,6 inches

Sant Feliu de GuíxolsEdition 2007

196418,5 x 13,3 inches

Blanes1965

Fiber paper selenium conservation16 x 12 inches

Cadaqués1959

Vintage print made by the author9,25 x 6,6 inches

XAVIER MISERACHSBarcelona, 1937

EXHIBITIONS -SELECTION-

1957 Agrupación Fotográfica de Cataluña (Barcelona), AFAL (Almería) y Real Sociedad Fotográfica de Madrid: Terré-Misera chs- Masats

1959 Sala Aixelà, BarcelonaTerré-Miserachs-Masats, dirigida por Josep Maria Casademont

1982 René Metras Gallery, Barcelona. Exposición conjunta con Leopoldo Pomés y Francesc Català-Roca. Fotografía catalana en los años 50-60

1987.. Barcelona Metrópolis. Instalación en la Gran Vía de Barcelona de la exposición conjunta con Colita, Oriol Maspons y Francesc Català-Roca

1991 Grupo AFAL 1956-1991. Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Almería. Exposición colectiva, organizada por la Junta de Andalu cía, la Diputación Provincial de Almería y Almediterránea’92

1992 Tiempo de Silencio, Centro de Arte Santa Mónica. Exposición organizada por el Departamento de Cultura de la Genera litat de Cataluña y la Fundación Caixa de Catalunya

1992 Fundación “la Caixa”1 segundo y 25 centésimas. Exposición retrospectiva comisariada por Alain Dupuy

2000 Colegio de Periodistas de Cataluña, (Barcelona) Xavier Miserachs, un lujo periodístico

2004 Photoespaña 04. Barcelona, con Terré y Masats.

2006 Josef Sudek Gallery (Praga)Barcelona. Blanco y Negro

2007 Centro Fontana de Oro (Girona) Francesc Català-Roca y Xavier Miserachs. Dos miradas al territorio de la Costa Brava48

2008 Hartmann Gallery (Barcelona) En clave de mujer

ILLUSTRATED BOOKS

1964 Barcelona, blanc i negre y Barcelona, blanc y negro Josep Maria Espinàs, Aymà

1966 Costa Brava show, Manuel Vázquez y Peter Coughtry, Kairós, Conversaciones en Cataluña, Salvador Pániker, Entrevistas a Josep Pla, Ana María Matute, José María Gironella, Salva dor Espriu, Josep Maria de Porcioles, Antoni Tàpies, Josep Maria Subirachs o Salvador Dalí. Kairós

1967 Los cachorros, Mario Vargas Llosa, Lumen

1967 El arte prerrománico asturiano, Antonio Bonet Correa, Polígrafa

1969 Conversaciones en Madrid, Salvador Pániker Entrevistas a personajes como Camilo José Cela, Antonio Buero Vallejo, Aranguren, Sáenz de Oiza. Kairós

1978 Andalucía Barroca, Antonio Bonet Correa. Polígrafa

1982 Catalunya des del mar, Carlos Barral Collección Vida i costums dels catalans. Edicions 62

1984 Aprendre a conviure, Josep Maria Espinàs, Caixa de Sabadell

1985 Catalunya a vol d’ocell, Carles Barral, Josep Maria Ainaud, Edicions 62

1987 Barcelona a vol d’ocell, Montserrat Roig, Edicions 62

1987 Passeig de Mar, Xavier Febrés, Passeig de mar: la costa catalana del delta de l’Ebre a Cotlliure.Ed. Plaza y Janés/Dia ri de Barcelona

1988 Els barcelonins, Oriol Maspons, Ana María Moix, Terenci Moix, Edicions 62

1988 Les Barcelones del Món, J. Nuñez, Rafael Pradas, Caixa de Barcelona

1990 Metros i Metròpolis, Xavier Febrés, Mercè Sala. Diputación de Barcelona

1990 Gran Teatre del Liceu, Con fotografías de Ferran Freixa. L’Avenç

1992 El Gran Teatre del Liceu a Sevilla Ramon Pla i Arxé Libro hecho con motivo de la Exposición Universal de Sevilla de 1992. L’Avenç

1997 L’Empordà: llibre de meravelles, Antoni Puigverd. Edicions 62

1995 Ciutat Vella. Visions des d’una passió, Joan Barril, Josep Maria Carandell, Josep Cuní, Arcadi Espada, Josep Maria Espinàs, Xavier Febrés, Patrícia Gabancho, Josep Maria Huertas, Josep M. Lladó, Lluís Permanyer, Alfred Rexach y Margarita Rivière. Fotografía en color a cargo de Toni Catany y de Miserachs, Colita, Toni Catany y Leopoldo Pomés Campello. Lunwerg

1997 Fulls de contacte, Xavier Miserachs Premio Gaziel Memorias del artista. Edicions 62

1998 Girona a Quatre Vents, Joan Domènech i Moner. Lunwerg

1998 Criterio fotográfico, Xavier Miserachs, Libro de divulgación fotográfica. Editorial Omega

2004 Conversaciones en Madrid y en Cataluña, Salvador Pániker Alemany, Reedición revisada después de la muerte del fotógrafo.Kairós

2006 Memòries de la Costa Brava, Rosa Regàs. Fotografías de F.Català Roca y Miserachs, Lupita Books