Ministerial Gaudí

In 1936, La Pedrera was confiscated by the PSUC and served as the headquarters of the Department of Economy and Agriculture, as well as the private residence of Joan Comorera, Secretary General of the party and Minister of Economy for much of the war.

The Rossend Torras archive consists of at least 25,000 negatives, one third of which are stereoscopic plates (a 3D photography method that was very popular during the first third of the 20th century), as well as around one hundred film reels. This collection documents everyday life in Barcelona and summer holidays on the Costa Brava, sporting and theatrical activity, and key political events from 1926 to the mid-1950s.

Torras’s dual status as both a professional and amateur photographer explains both the high quality of the material and the fact that it has remained unpublished until now. From the mid-1920s, Torras ran the family business, Casa Torras, with shops located at number 83 Gran de Gràcia Street in Barcelona and in Plaça de Sant Jaume. The business was dedicated to the sale and import of photographic equipment, optics, and, under the Tomir brand, the manufacture of doorbells, photographic laboratory instruments, and radios. The availability of materials, technical expertise, and sufficient space to maintain an archive were therefore guaranteed.

However, until 1939, his activity as a photographer corresponded to that of the great amateur photographers of the first third of the last century. In 1926, at the age of 19, Torras joined the pioneering Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya, where he repeatedly won awards in the annual competitions in stereoscopic and autochrome photography (an early color photography process). In 1931, he also joined the photography and film sections of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. In 1939, however, he obtained professional photographer accreditation, and from that point on he combined his commercial work with assignments for Radio Barcelona (only some of which were published in the written press) and portrait photography of actresses from the Barcelona theatre scene.