Photo by Joan Colom, Barcelona

Photo by Joan Colom, Untitled, 1957

There have been many exhibitions in Barcelona of the photographs that Joan Colom (Barcelona, 1921) took of the city. The spirit of the Raval, the old Barrio Chino, was captured in its entirety by this brilliant photographer during the 1950s and 60s.

His photographs of people and their surroundings give us an idea of how the characters related to the landscape of the time, and of the traditions and activities of a neighbourhood that no longer exists.

In Colom’s own words: ‘I didn’t know I was doing social photography at the time. I was just taking photographs and looking for images that moved me. I have sometimes used that term to describe my work, but for me it simply means that I don’t do landscapes or still lifes. I do the street. With my photographs I try to be a kind of notary of an era.’ Joan Colom, 1999

A few years ago, the Foto Colectania Foundation held an exhibition of the 76 photographs of Barcelona’s Barrio Chino that Joan Colom gathered in an album as a gift for his friend and gallerist Josep Maria Casademont. Here you can read the full article and see a short video of the exhibition. His work was also shown at MNAC.

With his camera half-hidden under his coat, at chest height, Joan Colom gradually built up a portrait of a neighbourhood that no longer exists, as it has modernised over time.

Today the Raval, although it’s still a modest Barcelona neighbourhood, has modernised and grown more popular since it became home to MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona), the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona), the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Geography and History, as well as luxury hotels.

The neighbourhood also still draws people because it’s home to places of historical interest such as the church of Sant Pau del Camp and Palau Güell, among others.