Xavier Miserachs

El Born, Barcelona 1962

Ten years ago I purchased an original photographic print titled El Born, Barcelona 1962 by Xavier Miserachs. I did so simply because I loved the image. At the time I attempted to find out more about the photographer, but the only fact that I could establish was that he was Spanish.

Last month I once again tried to find out more, and this time my search was more productive. Here is what I found at Photolounge.eu (which has additional images taken by Miserachs):

Xavier Miserachs belongs to a generation of photographers who modernised Catalan photography at the beginning of the sixties. Maspons, Colita and Pomés, in Barcelona, or Ontañón and Masats in Madrid are some of his most important contemporaries. He studied medicine which he gave up to pursue a photographic career. He was a multifaceted person with interests in many fields, e.g. worked as a disk-jockey, was a member of the "gauche divine" in Barcelona, an advertising photographer, a teacher and a columnist. Miserachs was all of this and more as we can see in his memories, "Contact sheet" which he wrote just before leaving us, still young, in his sixties. His photography is direct, fresh, full of irony and a sense of humour; definitively without any complexes, which reflected his attitude to life. The archive of this unique artist fortunately is well taken care of by his two daugthers Arena and Mar, who even have the initiative to come up with new book projects (Memories de la Costa Brava, 2005, Miserachs / Català-Roca), and sign all modern prints.

I also found an interview given by Miserachs just before his death in 1998, which you can read online (if your Spanish is up to it), and last but not least, I discovered that the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya has its own print of this image and included it in one of its recent promotional leaflets (available as a PDF file 836Kb).

So it seems that I'm in good company, and I now know a lot more about the photograph that hangs on my wall.

PS — My print is dated 1988 and is signed by the photographer.