A raging experimentation.

The role of photography in the creation of a canonical image for spanish modern architecture

Abstract

Photography is one of the most effective ways of representing architectural objects. It is an optimal tool for graphic communication. However, on numerous opportunities its role goes beyond pure documentation and takes a leading role in the definition and dissemination of a certain architecture.
This paper aims to present the significance of photography in the definition and consolidation of the image of Spanish modern architecture in the 1950s and 1960s. In a time when travel and contacts were relatively limited, photographs published in the Spanish media allowed the architects to show their progress inside and outside the borders. Surely, their authors were not aware of what they did, but, seen in perspective, it is clear that the selection and wider dissemination of a series of snapshots marked the development of the Spanish “new architecture”.