Never to Be Seen?
Never to Be Seen?
The story of Antoni Campañà is a paradox - a photographer who kept his oeuvre buried, but left behind two red boxes containing over 5,000 prints and negatives of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). These photographs were never meant to be displayed, but since their rediscovery in 2018, they have been published in a book and exhibited in Barcelona.
The most recent exhibition, "Antoni Campañà: Hidden Icons, the Unknown Images of the Spanish War," is now on display in Montpellier, France. Despite Campañà's wishes, his grandson believes it's essential to show these images today. The forgotten archives are considered "the last photographic treasure of the Civil War" and are of great interest in terms of the coverage of the conflict.
The exhibition is a reminder of the importance of rediscovering and showing works like these, especially at a time when information is being threatened by algorithms.