Raniero Fernández. The Achive

Manuel Sendón, Xosé Luís Suárez Canal

In the nineteen-fifties and sixties, the way photography was considered was very different from today; non-professional photographic activity was carried out within photographic associations and, in the second half of the nineteen-fifties and in the nineteen-sixties, it attained a relevance that until that time it had never had. Associations sprang up in the majority of cities: in 1946, the Galician Photographic Association (AFG) in Vigo; in 1955, the Ferrolano Enthusiasts of Artistic Photography;in 1956, the Corunna Photographic Society (SFC); in 1958, the Lugo Photographic Association for Education and Leisure and, in 1962, the Compostela Photographic Association, as an affiliate of the AFG. To understand what this movement meant, it needs to be contextualised in the economic, cultural and political situation of the Spain at that time¹.

The AFGremained independent of the official bodies, unlike that of Lugo, which was conceived as part of the official body for Education and Leisure,andthe Corunna Association, which ended up being integrated into it. The AFGis not onlythe oldest, it is also the only one not limited to a specific locality; its name clearly states the interest in bringing together Galician photographers and, to do so, delegates were appointed in Vilagarcía, A Guarda, Santiago de Compostela and Ribadavia. It also included photographers from other cities, such as Schmidt de las Heras, Veiga Roel, and Manuel Ferrol from Corunna, and Luis Casado from Santiago, to mention but a few names from among its large number of members, which by 1958 would reach a total of 400. It was also the one that was most active, particularly since 1954, the year in which the chairmanship was assumed by Raniero Fernández, who would go on to become its driving force through the organisation of competitions and shows and the publishing of newsletters (a triptych until 1957, the year in which it became a 16-page publication) in which Fernando Alonso Amat, Xosé María Alvárez Blázquez, Alexandre Cribeiro, Celso Emilio Ferreiro, Ricard Terré and Raniero himself, under the pseudonym ‘One from the Association,’ would write. He contributed to the establishment of the Banco de Celuloide or Cinemateca, which came into being in 1957 with a repository of 8 mm and Super 8 films, and which two years later would already be in possession of around 250. In addition to Raniero Fernández, other photographers who were members of the AFG, such as Luis Zamora, Fernando Ximénez, Manuel García Ferrer, Luis Gutiérrez, Mario Pérez, Francisco Losada, among others, are also worthy of mention.

Photographers from the associations were typically middle-class people whose professions had nothing to do with photography, who had free time at their disposal, and for whom photography was a hobby, which they assumed with a highly competitive mentality, more befitting of a sporting activity than of a cultural one. Photographs were taken with the aim of winning prizes, and the criteria on which the jury of the competitions were based were determined by the associations’ newsletters and, most especially, by the magazine Arte Fotográfico, to which the majority of its members subscribed. They were fascinated by technique and, indeed, a photograph in which grains were visible, or one that did not have good definition or an extensive range of greys would be immediately rejected. The work in the laboratory was essential: apart from the relevant masking, they would re-frame the photo, since the paper they habitually used was 30 x 40 cm, which did not correspond to the proportions of the 35 mm or 6 x 6 negatives. On the other hand, in some cases, such as that of Losada, prints were achieved by combining several negatives in order to incorporate clouds, not to mention the laborious bromoil print process employed by Ramón Merino, Francisco Pillado and Inocencio Schmidt de las Heras, the last of whom produced a collection of more than four hundred bromoil prints, a procedure that, like all others involving pigmentation, had fallen into total disuse outside Spain and, in fact, had been considered by Daniel Masclet, in 1956,² as a sign of the backwardness of Spanish photography. Nowadays, however, we cannot ignore the value of Schmidt’s extensive collection of bromoil prints, of the transported bromoils of Joaquim Pla, or of José Ortiz Echague’s carbon prints. Nonetheless, the majority of Galician amateurs did not use pigment-based processes and employed conventional types of paper, usually with a semi-matte finish and generally avoiding glossy finishes.

The importance attached to the technique was on a par with that placed on the formal resolution. The images had to conform to the classical rules of composition: the two-thirds rule, vanishing points, lines of force, strong points, etc. Accordingly, the word ‘composition’ was repeated constantly; thus, in the 4th edition of the AFG bulletin, we can read that the photographs were ‘scored by theme, composition and printing.’

The pursuit of beauty was, as Schmidt de las Heras put it, the ultimate goal: ‘The important thing is to acquire, to cultivate the gift, that new sense of seeing, of translating, of interpreting, and of capturing beauty, highlighting any of its infinite compositional elements.’³

Even though there were none of the typical images of dancers, so common in other parts of the world within the dynamics of competition, the subjects are fairly specific: still lifes, portraits, costumbrist scenes, idyllic nocturnal, marine, port, woodland and river scenes, in a romantic vision, accompanied by the search for lighting effects, such as reflections, smoke, mist and backlighting, typical of historical pictorialism. ‘Light is, of course, the photographer’s basic instrument, and the highly personal use thereof is what distinguishes the true creative artist. … Diffuse lights to create the atmosphere that often permeates impressionist paintings.’⁴ This text, published in the Corunna Association’s newsletter, is reminiscent of the statement from the pictorialist, Leonard Misonne: ‘The subject is unimportant, the light is everything.’⁵They eschewed uniform skies, and to this end they habitually resorted to filters. There were cases, such as that of Losada, who, as Raniero Fernández recalled, ‘had a collection of negatives with different clouds, cirrus, nimbus, stratus… in order to then incorporate them into his photographs,’ following a practice already employed by Le Gray back in the nineteenth century.A clear example of this pictorialist trend can be found in the photographs taken by Veiga Roel on the River Mandeo. He was a highly acclaimed photographer within Galician associations, and even held individual exhibitions in the nineteen-fifties; the others merely showed their photos at the collective exhibitions that would give rise to the shows, and which were normally attended by the members of the associations themselves. This concern with the effects of light is also found in the photographs of Zamora, who revelled in misty environments and strongly defined clouds. In Schmidt’s work, as in that of Veiga Roel and Zamora, there are also influences of movements subsequent to pictorialism, and some images reveal the formal influence of the avant-garde of the nineteen-twenties, through resources such as fragmentation and low-angle shots.

But there were also those who took photographs that that could not be defined as pictorialist, as occurred with the majority of the images from the extensive oeuvre of Raniero Fernández, or with those from much less extensive work of Manuel García Ferrer, particularly with his images of football, which constitute a faithful portrait of that time. However, these were not the photographs that won prizes, nor did they even form part of those that were habitually submitted.

After landscapes, costumbrist scenes were the most frequent. They sought topics which they defined as ‘typical’ or ‘picturesque,’ and the resulting images were analysed with fundamentally formal and technical parameters. Luis Zamora was very clear about this: ‘They were not documentary photographs, as the framing was the priority.’⁶ However, viewed from a modern-day perspective, some of these photographs, and those of Zamora are an example of this, have acquired some interest from a documentary perspective.

The photographs were usually taken from a distance, but we also find some that were the product of staging, in which the subjects acted on the photographer’s instructions. This staging was sometimes accompanied by the overacting of the characters, such that the same individual could assume different roles, as occurs in some of the images by Veiga Roel. Luis Seoane, in 1958, described the representation of the rural world that is produced on the basis of this staging as ‘false’⁷.

In the mid nineteen-fifties, the Photographic Association of Almería (AFAL), which brought together Spain’s most innovative photographers, took a stand against the type of photography that was being carried out in the Associations, and in 1957, Oriol Maspons, a member of AFAL, published the article ‘Salonismo’ in Arte Fotográfico, in which he penned a stinging criticism of what the dynamics of competitions and shows imply. The members of AFALadvocated for ‘photography of human interest,’ which broke with the pictorialist formalism that characterised the photography of the Associations. One of the most prominent members of AFAL was Ricard Terré, probably the most vanguardist in formal aspects, and for whom the human interest of photography was his creed. Terré would go on to have a close relationship with the members of the AFG,owing to his personal relationship with Raniero, forged initially during his holiday periods and more permanently when, after marrying in 1959, he established his residence Vigo. In 1956 he became a member of the AFGand, like other members of the AFAL, such as Gabriel Cuallado, Xavier Miserachs and Carlos Pérez Siquier, he began to enter the Association’s competitions.⁸As of 1957, he decided not to compete in the competitions; he did, however, agree to be a member of the juries, with the aim of promoting a change in the conceptions of the Association’s members, and with that end in mind, he contributed to its newsletters. In fact, in all the editions, from 31 (1958) to 41 (1962), there is a collaboration of his, or some reference to his work.

In January 1959, as a consequence of his forthcoming move Vigo, Terré wrote to Raniero: ‘I hope to extract some avant-garde elements out of the Galician [AFG] to help me to discuss and promote “photographic” photography.’⁹

Raniero Fernández would go from being the one who introduced him to photography to becoming an admirer of his work, and this feeling of admiration led him to promote within the association the debate between what he considered ‘classical photography’ and ‘modern photography.’ To this end, he organised several conferences with Terré in 1957 and 1958, and from Raniero’s correspondence with other photographers, we know of the interest that this confrontation provoked among the Association’s most active members.

The photography produced by the members of AFAL was not understood by the members of the Galician associations, thus, Veiga Roel, considered the most representative of the ‘classical photography,’felt that ‘modern photography’ suffered‘from the much-vaunted originality’andaccused its advocates of ‘frankly lamentable technical laziness,’even going as far as claiming that ‘they cultivate extravagance.’¹⁰ Fernando Ximénez thought along the same lines, but he was curious to become acquainted with it, and in 1957 he became a member of AFAL, and around that time he wrote to Raniero: ‘I will endeavour to learn something from the new aesthetic forms, which ultimately means doing the same as before, but with everything out of focus and blurred.’¹¹

Luis Zamora had a different stance, and he wrote to Raniero Fernández, also in 1957:‘I am looking forward to receiving the newsletter … , to see the conversation with Terré; I can tell you, for my part, I am becoming increasingly fond of modern photography with each passing day; I am finding classical photography monotonous, as, except for something exceptional, it is always the same.’¹² And, with the passing of the years, the opinion of Luis Gutiérrez would be: ‘We had become a little stuck in the past. We liked the photos by Bellver, and Veiga Roel’s mists, we drooled over them because we only had eyes for all that. Everything was focused on shows until Ricard Terré arrived, then we had to open our eyes and see that there was something more.’¹³.

Terré, for his part, wrote in 1960 in the AFG newsletter¹⁴ that he felt disappointed in his purpose, but with the passing of time, in 1995, he would not have such a negative view of the photography that was being produced at that time in the AFG:

In Galicia there was a series of photographers who, perhaps unintentionally or unwittingly, as their thought focused on the contest, delved into subjects, which owing to the nature of Galician people and the circumstances —rural setting, emigration, etc.—, invaded the more interesting terrain of photography unlike the more academic, pompous, and perhaps more arrogant AFC.¹⁵

In the early nineteen-sixties, the AFGcontinued to showsignificant levels of activity. The newsletter reproduced articles by the AFAL, Camera or Ferrania, and there was an increasing presence of cinema-related articles, prominent among which were those by Alonso Amat and Alexandre Cribeiro. The Iberian Show continued to be held annually and, thanks to Terré’s mediation, the AFG organised a number of exhibitions, such as the monographs by Otto Steinert and Closa Miralles, or that of the Mexican groupLa Ventana. As of 1963, the activity dropped off, the newsletter was longer published and the Iberian Show ceased to be held, and there would only be a one-off edition held in 1967. In 1969, Raniero Fernández relinquished the chairmanship.

In those early years of the decade, changes in society and the influence of AFAL photographerswould lead to a transformation of the formal characteristics of Spanish photography. ‘Modern photography competitions’ emerged, the imperceptible grain gave way to the ostentatious one, the wide range of greys to high contrast, semi-matte papers to glossy ones and, at times, images that were formally well-defined to apparently sloppy images. The bucolic landscapes, with their impressionist effects, and distant costumbrist scenes, gave way to images in which reflected sadness and even misery. Formalist images in which an object is repeated indefinitely were also frequent, a resource often employed by avant-garde photographic movements. The dynamics of competitions remained the same, only the forms changed.

Along these lines, mention should be made of the Vigo-based photographer, José Luis Domínguez Maneiro, who garnered numerous prizes. Casademont, a friend and connoisseur of Terré’s oeuvre, praised his work in these terms:‘We do not know the influence that Ricard Terré’s stay could have had on the beautiful region, particularly on the photographic atmosphere of the city of Vigo, but what is certain is that the photographs of Mr. Domínguez Maneiro operate in a highly current terrain.’¹⁶ Apart from Terré’s formal influence, it must be stressed that the meaning and dimension of the work of these two photographers differed significantly.

In a very different line from that of the photography of the nineteen-fifties is Emilio Lavandeira, a professional from Santiago and member of the Compostela association’s board, who considered that the city of Ksado‘was a city of papier-mâché’ and defined his photographs, which were much more spontaneous, as a ‘from the sphere of journalism.’It is notby chance that Lavandeira’s images were accompanied by ironic footnotes written in Galician, something unprecedented in the photographic environment of that period.

During that decade, the teacher, Luis Rueda, from the Lugo Association, produced interesting work on the world of children. In his photographs, in order to approach the dynamism of children’s play, he employed sweeps, as well as overhead and low angle shots. In Raniero’s archive, we find eight of his photographs that are on display in the context room of this exhibition. The Corunna-based Dionisio Tasende (SFC), already active in the nineteen-fifties, in addition images in which the impressionist search for light effects was present, produced costumbrist work, which lasted throughout that decade and into the following one, and in which he documented different aspects of the rural world.

Most Galician photographers from the nineteen-fifties were still producing photographs along the same lines, but there are images that reflect changes, such as the abandonment of staticity and the appearance of moving elements. This is evident, for example, in a photograph by García Ferrer—Expectación (Expectation, 1956-1962)—which is reminiscent of the aesthetics of Robert Frank. In it, the runner in the foreground appears blurred and in motion, unlike the crowd which, despite being in the background, is clearly defined. These changes are also recorded, to a certain extent, in Raniero’s work, as we shall go on to see.

As photographic activity dropped off, it was replaced by cinematographic activity. Thus, Luis Gutiérrez recalled selling his Leica to buy a film camera. In 1962, the Cinemateca gave rise to the Cine-Club Vigo, with Raniero as chairman and Fernando Alonso Amat, who would be its principal driving force, as his deputy. As the nineteen-sixties wore on, cinema clubs became increasingly important, and their symposia became one of the freest fora for debate of the period, despite the presence of the traditional government delegate. In Vigo, these symposia were led by Alonso and Cribeiro, both with important cultural training and progressive beliefs. The films screened had an influence on the photography being produced in the sixties within the associations as did, in a specific way, the Italian neo-realism present in their programming. In 1977, Raniero Fernández tendered his resignation, as his political convictions did not correspond with the orientation that the Cinema-Club had taken on, and he was appointed chairman of honour.

Raniero Fernández, photographer¹⁷

Raniero Fernández was born in 1909, into a financially well-to-do family, and he began to take photographs as a child on his excursions as a Boy Scout. In the period 1924-1929, he used a 4.5 x 6 Westbucket. Later, he used larger format cameras (6 x 9 and 6.5 x 12) and, in the nineteen-thirties, he went on to use a 35 mm Retina, which, on the different fronts he visited during the Civil War, he would carry in a cartridge case. Later, he purchased a Leica with different lenses, with which he performed practically all of his work. It was in the nineteen-fifties when his photographic activity acquired an important dimension, although the decisive factor was the prize of honour in the 4th Regional Competition of the AFG, in 1953. From that moment on, he began to demonstrate the intense activity to which we referred earlier within the association, work that coincided temporally with his period of greatest activity as a photographer.

Since 1984, we have been analysing a significant number of archives, and we have never come across one structured like Raniero’s. The rigour with which he configured it is astonishing. The approximately twenty thousand 35 mm negatives that comprise it are carefully stored in 181 cabinets, each one with 108 negatives, where the rows are marked with letters and the columns with numbers, so that locating the negatives is a simple task. In addition to the traditional contact sheets, he made around five thousand reference and study prints, of 7 x 10 cm, and many other 13 x 18 cm prints of all those negatives that had minimal interest for him. The former are sorted chronologically and the latter in thematic order, in around a hundred folders. On all these study prints, the exact date on which it was made is referenced on the back, in addition to the coordinates of the negative. On some exhibition prints, not only did he add this information, but also that of developing the negative and of the print itself. At the same time, he kept small notebooks in which, in addition to the aforesaid information, he recorded the location, speed, aperture and the lens used to take the shot, the type of film, the developer and the developing data of the roll of film. All of this highlights his passion for producing an archive with the greatest possible functionality and information, in the manner and with the rigour of a scientist, owing to which it is not surprising that he defined photography as ‘artistic science,’ at the same time as he humbly affirmed ‘that it requires no special qualities, simply that something catches your eye and that you have a certain feeling for framing’. This passion for cataloguing led him to collect stamps, coins and cigar bands, which is somewhat striking, given that, according to the testimony of his niece, Mercedes, in his everyday life he was not known for his tidiness.

For him, photography was a hobby to which he was fully dedicated in the period from 1954 to 1964, to such an extent that, as his niece, Mercedes, also recalls, while eating he would be stirring the developing tank. Following the Association’s custom of going to photograph in groups, on Sunday mornings he would habitually venture out with Luis Zamora, Fernando Ximénez, Luis Gutiérrez and Antonio Regueiro. As a result, there are scenes that are shot by several photographers at the same time. Hence is not unusual to find images from different photographers in which the framing and the characters are repeated. This is the case, for example, of a photograph by García Ferrer, in which the protagonist of Ranier’s Muller celta (Celtic Woman,1958) appears portrayed, at the same moment, and with a similar framing. However, Raniero paid more attention to the character’s face, while Gacía Ferrer included what she was carrying in her basket. He also attached great importance to working in the laboratory, as that was where the framing was done, given that the proportions of the 35 mm negative do not match those of the 30 x 40 cm paper, which was originally used, or those of the 50 x 60 cm paper, which he used occasionally. It was rare for him and the other amateurs to trim the paper. Like them, he did not habitually use glossy paper, rather Gevaluxe paper (a velvety paper that produced intense blacks, though at the cost of losing detail when filling in the shadows), which he used for developing some of the prints to be sent to competitions. Nonetheless, Raniero did not attach the same importance to the processing as Zamora, Losada or Gutiérrez, whom he admired owing to the ‘exquisite nature’of their prints.

In contrast to the penchant that most amateurs had for landscape photography, for Raniero this was a marginal theme. Nor did he show any special interest in lighting effects (mists, smoke, etc.), which appealed to the majority of his colleagues. By way of exception, there are images such as Porto de Vigo (1958), in which the smoke from the fishing boats is the protagonist, and some in which the mist appears, such as Estrada (Road) (Chapela, 1957), very much in line with those of Veiga Roel, or Entre brétemas (Through Mists) (Vigo, 1961), a landscape in which the different levels of the buildings appear blurred by the fog. He described the landscapes of his companions, and in a particular way those of Veiga Roel, as Romantic. What he did use, as was commonplace at the time, was a yellow or orange filter to accentuate the presence of the clouds.

Among the most valued themes are the nocturnal ones. Raniero produced photographs of O Berbés, in the port of Vigo, and of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in different years. It must be said that these images are nowhere near the quality of Schmidt de las Heras’ nocturnal shots, either in terms of the technical sophistication of the bromoil prints, or the cinematographic traces reflected in them and which lend them a mysterious atmosphere. Unlike many amateurs, he was not interested in still life, portrait, or photography that required the preparation of the scene.

In a particular way, we have to consider the work he produced in the port of Vigo, to which he would return continuously from 1953 until the early sixties. This series forms a highly important part of his work. He considered the port to be ‘an exceptional photographic hunting ground,’a definition that clearly highlights his conception of photographic activity. He believed that the photographer had to go completely unnoticed during the shooting, to thus be able to capture the scene with more spontaneity. This position reminds us of that of Cartier-Bresson, with whom he also shared a great concern for formal aspects, constantly reflected in elegant geometric compositions. His distancing when working enabled him to frame the image carefully, which he would study in detail until the docks, boats, lines and other elements were in the place that interested him. But his images are not posed, as often occurred with those of other amateurs, and this is due both to his timidity and to the conviction that lack of spontaneity leads to the absence of life and the loss of veracity in images, which reminds us once again of Cartier-Bresson. It is also worthwhile stressing the important role that people play in Raniero’s work, for whom, although he usually photographs them from behind, without their looking at the camera, ‘the photograph needs something that has life.’

The nineteen-fifties were characterised by the enormous importance of emigration to America; hence, the presence of transatlantic liners in the port of Vigo is constant. Ships and boats play an important role in many of Raniero’s photographs; they tend to occupy the background of images, in the foreground of which are people—often just one—always with their back us and motionless, which helps to creating a certain atmosphere of sadness. In these interesting, meticulously composed images, emigration appears in a subtle way. The photographs contrast with those taken by Manuel Ferrol in 1957 in the port of Corunna, addressing the farewells of emigrants. The latter’s images have very different characteristics to those of amateur photographers, even though he was a member of the AFG and of the SFC. They respond to a commission carried out on one single day, with an aesthetic that is the antithesis of that of amateurs. They turn what, for amateurs, are inadmissible errors, such as blurred movement, halo effects, crooked horizons, into resources that express the drama of emigration as no one else succeeded in doing. In 1986, when we edited the book Emigration with theseries of Manuel Ferrol, this difference in the ways of photographing led us to present both works together in an exhibition in the Sala dos Peiraos in Vigo,¹⁸ of which we were directors.

In the docks of Vigo, he also produced photographs based on amusing anecdotes, such as one gentleman shaving another on the sea shore, a worker eating peacefully surrounded by group of cats, a tram driver fishing or a priest visiting the jetty, a young man reading the newspaper on his bicycle, or a child with the Parisians. They are all reminiscent of the candid images of French photographers of the period, such as those of Robert Doisneau or those taken by Cartier-Bresson on the banks of the Seine. These photographers, like the documentary photography that was being produced in other countries at the time, do not seem to be an important reference for most amateurs in the nineteen-fifties, despite the fact that, in 1958 a documentary about The Family of Man was screened at the headquarters of the AFG, with a large attendance.¹⁹ Raniero saw the exhibition in Paris in 1956, during the trip he was making, and the proof that it interested him is that he returned to Vigo with the exhibition catalogue.

In this work, as he generally does in all his photographs, he presents a serene world. Formally very well-balanced, his photographs never induce thoughts about the problems or tensions that may be present in the situations photographed. It is curious, however, that he should profess his preference for the fishing port of O Berbés onSundays as that was when it was most peaceful. Nonetheless, there are certain images that reflect port activity, such as sailors preparing longlines, and other, more dynamic images represent sailors dragging fish boxes or hauling lines in mooring manoeuvres. It also includes the work of the women, carrying or washing fish baskets or dragging a cart loaded with ice, and he photographs the work carried out on transatlantic liner quay, as can be seen in Peirao de Carga (Cargo Wharf, 1963) or in Amarre (Mooring,1962).

His maritime interest is not limited to the docks of Vigo, since he also photographed in other places along the coast, mainly from the mouth of the River Miño to the Ría de Muros-Noia, the work of men and women in the port of A Guarda, the dornas in the Ría de Arousa, the vela latina (now disappeared) in the estuary of Muros, boats transformed into mussel rafts, etc. Some now prohibited fishing gear, such as rapeta or mediomundo; the world of shellfish fishing on board vessels, or the activity on the Massó de Cangas whaling factory in the year in which it is was opened. His love for the sea led him to purchase a boat, from which he took photographs of the sailing regattas in which he himself participated as an organiser.

Also present in his work is the rural world, considering that it is the one that defines Galicia’s singularity, and, as was customary in non-professional photography, he tended to approach it from an idealising perspective:

If Galicia is industrious, humble, but honest and tenacious in her efforts… If her unique landscapes exude nostalgia … any photographs that wish to call themselves Galician must have some of these characteristics, and we, as loving children of a beloved mother, must extol her virtues by photographing the beautiful and attractive, leaving aside the aspects of dubious taste that can be found anywhere.

… In short, for me, Galician photography is that in which we can notice our region, through any its aforesaid virtues and beauties.²⁰

Not only did he avoid questioning or presenting existing social problems, but he also avoided showing aspects that may have suggested a lack of harmony. Even when referring to the more vulnerable sectors of society, he would clarify: ‘I prefer to say less wealth than poverty.’

His position would lead him to consider Ksado’s album Prints from Galicia as a point of reference. In 1961, during a tribute organised by the AFG, Raniero Fernández personally expressed his admiration with the following words:

All Galicians and lovers of Galicia owe a deep debt of gratitude to you, for your constant and effective work in obtaining and disseminating the beauties of Our Land through your photographs, which served as a basis for the printing of numerous publications, which publicised and raised awareness of the most picturesque corners of the Region of Galicia.²¹

This conception must be contextualised in its time, but it should also be remembered that, in the same year, 1961, in the Association’s newsletter, he translated and published a summary of Interpress-Photo 1960, in which the photography habitually produced by amateurs is directly criticised, and where the humanist photography of journalism is put forward as an alternative, conceived as a universal language and based on the decisive moment.

The ‘productions of art,’ bereft of meaning, purely aesthetic, mystical or idyllic; and that the forced or prepared ‘beautiful’ photograph is finished; first and foremost, amateurphotography must reproduce life as it appears on the streets, in factories, among young people, during journeys and during holidays; to capture it as it is reflected, with the maximum expression in the face of man, in his gestures and movements.²²

Obviously, these words cannot be regarded as a view shared wholeheartedly by the author, especially if we look at his representation of the rural world. Nonetheless, the fact that they were translated and included in the association’s newsletter was already unusual and, at the same time, an indication that his position differed greatly from traditional pictorialism.

In his work, photographs of the hard work of the woman abound, going to the fountain to fetch water, transporting the traditional sella or a basket full of vegetables on her head, or washing a casserole dish in a watercourse—Corredoira (Lane, 1953) and Corredoira (Lane, 1956), in which he paid particular attention to the lighting, for which he used the effect of a backlight to suggest an idyllic vision of the peasant woman. All three were submitted to contests, but particularly the final one. The images of women selling firewood or milk in the centre of Pontevedra, and of women transporting milk on a donkey in Lugo reflect the relationship between the rural and urban worlds.

Another recurring theme, since the beginning of the nineteen-forties, is the fair in the Santa Susana oak grove in Santiago de Compostela, where he obtained images such as Esmagados (Oppressed, 1958) or A dura vida (The Harsh Life, 1959) which, as the title of the latter reflects, do not precisely showcase a sugar-coated vision of peasant life and respond more to what is defined at that time as humanist photography. This is a series that Raniero Fernández valued especially, as demonstrated by the enormous number of 50 x 60 enlargements he made. In particular A dura vida was, as he himself said, the photograph of which he was most fond.

Also noteworthy is the photograph taken of a farm worker in Santa Susana in 1958. Here, somewhat unusually for the work of Raniero, the subject is portrayed head-on with a harsh expression. Raniero did not limit himself to photographing this fair in Santiago de Compostela, he also took photographs of the same type in other fairs, such as those of Cabral or O Porriño, which shows the interest in the human aspect he encountered there.

Scenes from fiestas could not be left out, some joyous, such as Alborada (Dawn, 1957) and the very different Tres de artillería (Three from the Artillery, 1961), taken on 25 of July in Santiago, in which the blurriness ends up becoming an expressive resource does not exactly convey joy. Here we should also note the reportages from the early nineteen-seventies on the Curro de Mougás and the pilgrimage of San Mauro in Matamá (1962), in which he produces a series on offerings. Religion, so prominent in society at that time also appears in other photographs, such as Viacrucis (1958) or in Orando (Praying) (Cambados, 1960), as well as in those relating to the Santo dos Croques or the botafumeiro in Compostela.

The city of Vigo, where he resided, is not only present through its port, we also see the streets through costumbrist scenes, such as that of the Castañera (Chestnut Seller,1957) or the market stalls on the day of Epiphany (1959) or the travelling photographer in the Plaza de Compostela. The image of the boys playing football in front of a thicket of concrete columns (1958) in O Areal, and that of the girls playing with a hoop in the street are highly (1959) illustrative of childhood life of the period, when there were no playgrounds, and when a football pitch was improvised in the most varied places. He also photographed the innovations taking place in the city such, the new-fangled Christmas lights, the opening of Peinador Airport in 1954, and the healthcare residence, popularly known as the Pirulí (Lollipop), owing to the impact of its height on the city’s profile, and which he reflected with a touch of humour. Later, we find images of the construction of the Coia neighbourhood (1971), of the Rande Bridge (1977), or of the Polycommander accident (1970), the latter two of a clear documentary nature.

His comfortable financial situation allowed him to travel around Europe, which was somewhat unusual for the period. He visited France on a number of occasions, sometimes by boat, as he preferred, and he took some photographs on the crossing, there is also evidence of his having been in Belgium and Germany. In all these places, he took advantage to take photographs and visit the aforesaid exhibitions. In the nineteen-sixties, he travelled around the Iberian Peninsula. Although landscapes without people are not frequent in his photographs, on these occasions we do find some, like such as one he took in Castile in 1963, reminiscent of an image by Cartier-Bresson, or the series he produced in La Mancha in the sixties and seventies.

The titles were important to him, as they ‘help to understand the photograph.’ On certain occasions, they are redundant with regard to images, sometimes even to the topics, but the majority of his titles are ironic, and one could even say humorous. Central leiteira (Dairy Plant) (photograph of a costumbrist nature, in which we see a number of women milk sellers passing milk from one bucket to another), Familia numerosa (Numerous Family) (group of pigs), Visita ao porto (Visit to the Port)(priest at the door), Peirao de carga (a group of workers on a stall in the harbour) are just some of the many possible examples. Others, such as Muller Celta (Celtic Woman), reflect his conceptions; in this case, the importance that the alleged Celtic past had at that time as a sign of identity for Galicia, a notion that was very widespread at the time time. It is surprising that one photo can receive different titles, as is the case of Nocturno compostelán (Compostela by Night) and Compostela durminte (Compostela Sleeping) for the same image or that of Sinfonía galega (Galician Symphony) and Horizonte galego (Galician Horizon) for another one.

The changes that took place in the associations in the nineteen-sixties, referred to above, are reflected in a certain way in Raniero’s work, although, in overall terms, it still highly consistent with his earlier work. The pictorialist effects evident in some photos from the nineteen-fifties disappear, except in the case of of Entre brétemas (Through Mists)and in some nocturnal images of Compostela. More fragmented framings and more contrasted prints appear, as can be seen in the photograph of the seminary of Vigo (1962), Coloso (1962), Camarote de luxo (Luxury Cabin, 1961), Un millón de mortos (A Million Dead,1963), all of them copied in a glossy finish, or in the aforementioned Tres de artillería (1961), which differs from his more characteristic images which are distinguished by being clearly defined. We can also see how the reportages of the Curro de Mougás, the pilgrimage of San Mauro, or those of the fair of O Porriño (1962) show increased interest in the description and do not have a formal interest as marked as those of the port from the nineteen-fifties.

In 1962, he purchased a medium format camera, a Linhof 6 x 9, but the photographs taken with this camera were not of the same size as those taken with the Leica. In black and white, he only made around 500 negatives, forty times less than those obtained with the Leica, and used it, above all, to make colour slides, many of them from sailing races from his motor launch. The use of such a camera for this type of photography is surprising, as it was much less functional than the Leica. In any case, these images do not have the same interest as the rest of his work and their state of conservation is worse than that of black and white negatives.

As of 1964, his photographic activity drops off notably, in parallel to that of the AFG, and images that only have a family interest predominated, with a few exceptions, such as those referred to above and the series of granaries and stone crosses, started in the nineteen-fifties, on which he continued to work until the end of the seventies. From the nineteen-eighties, predominantly family photographs have been preserved. He developed his last roll of film in 1988.

Granaries and stone crosses

Raniero Fernández’s interest in the archive is not only evident in the organisation of the negatives and copies, it is also reflected in his work. In a very special way, mention should be made of the extensive work he conducted throughout Galicia, photographing granaries and stone crosses, to which he refers as follows: ‘Secular emblems (the stone cross which expresses our faith and the granary, the work done, that someone once called the Bank of the Peasant) that appear constantly on its soil, always similar but always different…’.

The granary is the most important outbuilding in the farmhouse and, although they are not exclusive to Galicia, it is true that they constitute an element that defines the entire Galician geography, except for some areas of the south-east, and so it is not unusual for Raniero to lend it so much importance. Cabazo, cabeceira, canasto, canastro, piorno names used for them.

For over twenty years, he photographed granaries all over Galicia and, most intensely, in the provinces of Corunna and Pontevedra. He produced over four hundred 13 x 18 cm studio prints, and referenced in his notes are more than four hundred negatives of granaries in the province of Pontevedra, which gives an idea of the extent of his work. He did not employ any type of aesthetic resource and he attempted to approach them in a systematic way, recording their different morphologies and other characteristics. These images were not produced to be submitted to contests, nor did they respond to the aesthetics that characterised amateur photography, rather they were closer to the use of photography by a researcher in the cataloguing process. There are numerous images in the series which have individual entity and stand on their own. For example, that of the granary in Forzáns (1974), in which nature seems to devour the remains of the construction; Onte e hoxe (Yesterday and Today) (A Estrada, 1960), contrasting a humble old granary in a state of disrepair with another, well-cared-for, recently built concrete granary; that of Ponte Noalla (1962) where the granary crowns the entrance to a plot of arable land; that of Piñeiro de Ares (1974), where he photographed a granary with barely any structure remaining, or Sinfonía galega (Galician Symphony) (Chantada, 1962), a photograph to which he attached special value, as there are several copies, all with the same re-framing, which is, incidentally, highly unusual. There are other photographs which, individually, do not attain that value, but do so within the whole they constitute, and that is how this series should be contemplated. Viewed globally, this work forces us think about the use of the archive that certain foreign artists were making at the time and, in a very particular way, in the immense work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, although the discourse is very different. We could say, in line with Rosalind Krauss, that they do not belong to the same discursive space. With this work, it was not Raniero’s intention to produce a work of art, but there are also differences from the formal point of view, since in Raniero’s photographs we find none of the decontextualization so characteristic of the Bechers’ work. The granaries series is not the product of the repetition of a rigid compositional scheme, nor does it respond to the formal and technical concerns that characterise the rest of his work. Finally, we must stress that it does not show the slightest presence of pictorialist effects either.

The purpose of the granaries is the drying and conservation of maize, which requires good ventilation. At the same time, they need to keep mice out, which means that the tornarratos or projections are placed over the feet. The different constructive solutions to these functions are clearly reflected in this series, in which the different morphologies are shown: from the most primitive cabazo, constructed using branches interwoven with a thatched roof, to those that have rectangular cabeceiras made of hewn stone, stonework, schist, wood, or even stone and wood combined, although there are also those built in brick or concrete, or the incorporation of brick into the old granaries, or the different roofs made of tile, schist or thatch. Although most have a rectangular base, as in reality, there are also those with a square base and those with an additional granary underneath. The roof ornaments, in the form of pinnacles or crosses, which are absent in the humblest ones, are reflected in the images, but they are not given special attention, as evidenced by the fact that he does not produce specific images of them. The truly important thing about these photographs is that the granaries are not decontextualised, as in other proposals based on the archive. The relationship with the territory where they are located can be perceived and, although it is very rare for people to appear, the imprint of life is reflected through the crops, haystacks, houses, domestic animals and even clothes or animal skins hung out to dry … The images show both the different states of conservation of the granaries and their evolution over time. In some images, alongside the rectangular granary, we can see a cabazo of intertwined branches, owing to the fact that the maize crop does not fit inside the principal granary, leading us to understand that we are dealing with a house with resources. Along these lines, the dimensions of the granary are usually interpreted as a manifestation of the house’s economic standing.

With a similar intention, and during the same period, Raniero carried out extensive work on stone crosses. In his archive, over more than four hundred 13 x 18 cm studio prints are preserved, and referenced in his notes are a similar number of negatives of stone crosses in of the province of Pontevedra. The characteristics of the photographs are very similar to those of the granaries and, for Raniero, both series were complementary in the attempt to approach ‘the human and the divine,’to approach the ‘secular emblems’of Galicia.

In this series of stone crosses, his idea, as he himself stated, was to approach what Castelao had done by drawing through the photograph. This led him to reproduce photographically all the illustrations in As cruces de pedra na Galiza, and what is most eyecatching is that he had the 1949 edition of the book, printed in Buenos Aires. Something similar happened with Otto Steinert’s exhibition: despite having the catalogue, he photographed Steinert’s images. Once again, this leads us to think that in order to see with a certain depth, Raniero needed to do so through the lens of his camera, which again reveals his interest in the archive.

We should also remember that the only image he had stuck on the furniture of his laboratory was a drawing of Castelao, which is somewhat surprising as, at that time, Castelao was not habitually acknowledged by people of a conservative ideology, like him. Nevertheless, Castelao’s project was much more extensive, since it addressed all manner of stone crosses and not only the stone crosses habitually seen at crossroads, and it also brought a very different dimension, as it was accompanied by a text of almost two hundred pages, which made it the most in-depth study that had ever been done on this topic. The two projects have in common a systematic approach to the rich universe of stone crosses, but with very different aims. Castelao focused fundamentally on the images of the cross (an element that he considered fundamental and to which he dedicated all the illustrations in the book) which he reproduced descontextualized in his drawings.²³ However, Raniero took few photographs in which only the motif of the cross appears. Nor did he habitually photograph the stone cross front and back, which would have allowed him to show the images of the Virgin which, in many cases, is hidden on the side opposite to that of the depiction of Christ. His photographs show the stone cross, which allows us to see the figures on the base, the column and the capital, but also, when there is one, the table where the coffin was placed on the way to the cemetery.

Castelao writes: ‘Our people reserve the name of cruceiro [stone cross] for the stone construction composed of steps, base, column, capital, with a cross on top, with more or less sculptures and more or less ornamental,’²⁴ but Raniero photographed some that do not meet these conditions, as they do not have steps and they stand directly on a rock or on a farm boundary wall, as is the case of the one of San Mamede (1967), and even some that lack the image on the cross.

The relevant thing is that, as in the granaries, he does not decontextualise them, one can see how in the stone cross of Hío (1956), despite its uniqueness, he attaches as much importance to the contextualisation as he does the stone cross itself. In fact, he photographed it again at a later date, when the only thing that had moved was the trellis that had been placed around it for protection. This is precisely what confers a special interest on his work, because, as the ethnographer Begoña Bas wrote:

Thus, stone crosses are not merely works of art in which Galician stonemasons exhibit their mastery. They are conceived for a certain purpose and have an entire universe of their own which relates them to the context into which they are inserted. Like all constructions, they have to be seen in their setting.²⁵

Thus, in Raniero’s photographs, we can observe the relationship between the stone crosses and the space, both when they are surrounded by nature and when they are located among houses, as well as the transformations that some underwent when streetlights were installed on the stone crosses themselves, such as that of Redondela (1962) or that of O Porriño (1962). In other photographs in the series, we find indications of the life of the places; in that of San Pedro de Vilanova (1960), for example, a dog appears on the pedestal; in A Ramallosa (1962), there is a fisherman’s basket on the platform, and in A Lavacolla (1960), a motorcycle can be made out in the distance. All of these elements contribute to contextualising crosses in the setting where they are located.

He only photographs one Calvary, that of Baiona, which is titled Viacrucis, as calvaries constitute the last station of the Cross. In that of Tabagón (1960), the three crosses appear on the same capital with the respective figures.

As occurred with the granaries, his work does not constitute an approximation from the history of art, nor is it, despite its ethnographic interest, the result of the study of an ethnographer. Nor do they aspire to achieve the status of works of art, even if today they are of interest from an aesthetic perspective. This facet of his work should be viewed as an experiential project in which he photographed the stone crosses and the granaries he encountered without the scholarly rigour which Castelao had employed. Somewhat similar to what happened when he went to the port of Vigo, what occurs with all of his photography: photography that catches one’s attention with no preconceived planning.

This use of the archive is also reflected in the series on goldsmithing, a theme with which he had a professional link, given that he was the owner of the oldest jewellery shop in Vigo. In these images, taken in the parishes of Vigo or in nearby places, here he does decontextualise the crosses, censers, chalices, incense holders and monstrances, which are photographed on a rudimentary black background that is perceived in the negatives but not in the copies. These are small series—the most extensive being the score of crosses, calyxes and monstrances—, printed in a smaller size than usual (18 x 24 cm) and in which uses a glossy enamel paper conducive to a better perception of the work done in silver; it should be noted that these are the only enamelled prints appearing in the archive. Additionally, many of these images were shot with the Linhof camera and constitute the most remarkable work produced with this camera, while those of the granaries and the stone crosses, with few exceptions, were taken with the 35 mm camera.

At the time, these photographs, such as those of the those of the granaries and the stone crosses, were not highly valued. In fact, he rarely submitted them to competitions, except for one of a religious theme organised by the AFG in 1962, in which he participated with seven stone crosses in addition to other images including, for example, those of the offerings from Matamá.

During the period in which he was active, Raniero Fernández sporadically published some of his images in the magazine Vida Gallega, in the newspaper El Pueblo Gallego, and in the newspaper ABC, accompanying the articles written by Luis Moure Mariño. In 1965, along with Pedro Rica, he edited Vigo, Puerta del Atlántico in which, with high-quality printing by Fournier in Vitoria and with a poor design, more than seventy photographs of his own, of Losada, and of the professional photographers of Vigo were reproduced. The publication was conceived as a sort of showcase for the city from a tourist perspective.

With the Centre of Photographic Studies having abandoned photographic activity, in 1984 he exhibited his photographs in the 1st Vigo Photobiennial; in 1986, in the Sala dos Peiraos, together with those of Manuel Ferrol,in theexhibition referred to above and, in 1996, within the programme of the Photobiennial, there was a monographic exhibition of his work and the presentation of a book dedicated to it in the Album collection, three years prior to his death.²⁶

At the time, Raniero was recognised more for his work as chairman of the AFG than as a photographer. This is due to the fact that a large part of his photographs, and particularly those which arouse most interest today, were not valued for their artistic quality, unlike those of other members of the associations, such as Veiga Roel or Schmidt de las Heras.

Even though Raniero considered shows and competitions to be the driving force behind photographic activity, which explains why he spent a good deal of time organising them, it is still surprising to see how a photograph of his that won first prize in one competition was not even displayed in the following one. In reference to the relativity of the value of the opinions of juries, he wrote to Veiga Roel in 1956: ‘I am increasingly convinced of the irregular nature of juries.’²⁷ Nonetheless, he participated in a large number of competitions, but he was not among those photographers who won prizes. His most interesting photographs, such as those taken in the port of Vigo, were unsuitable for the competition criteria: ‘The less documentary a photo is, the more artistic it is. It is not the reality which is interesting, rather its ideological or sentimental interpretation.’²⁸ In fact, he decided not to send many of them and he repeatedly sent those that he considered possible prize-winners, which are not precisely the most interesting images: nocturnal images such as Nocturno nas Praterías (Nighttime in Platerías), Pedras santas (Holy Stones, 1954) or Quintana a media noite (Quintana at Midnight, 1954), taken in Compostela,²⁹ given the important consideration given to nocturnal images within the sphere of shows, what also contributed to his appreciation of them, and proof of this is that he had them hanging in his house. He also submitted other photographs, such as the bucolic Esteiro (Estuary, 1953), which was the most often submitted, along with Corredoira (Lane, 1953), based fundamentally on pictorialist effects. Although to a lesser extent, he also frequently submitted Brigantium (1956)³⁰ or Maruxiña. A selection which responds to the most traditional treatments of the most show-worthy and picturesque themes. However, he did not submit the most interesting images, with the exception perhaps of some of the ones he produced at the Santiago fair in the early sixties. In global terms his oeuvre is one of the most distant from pictorialism and, coincidentally, with the passing of time, these are the images that are acquiring most interest, in contrast to the majority of those that garnered prizes at the time.

Exhibition proposal

Nowadays, photography is not seen under the same criteria that prevailed in the nineteen fifties and sixties. This meant that an in-depth review of Raniero Fernández’s work from a contemporary perspective was necessary. Although in 1996 we had held the exhibition and made the publication that we have just mentioned, we considered that the time had come to approach the work of Raniero Fernández in greater depth and more extensively, paying special attention to the series of the goldsmithing, the stone crosses and the granaries. The first two were hitherto unpublished while of the final one, that of the Granaries, only a small number had been shown.

At the same time, in order to understand the significance of Raniero’s photography in its full measure, we need to contextualise it in the temporal and territorial coordinates in which it was produced. For this reason, the exhibition dedicates a room to the context, in which photographs by photographers who are well known in photographic groups, such as Manuel García Ferrer, Francisco Losada, Luis Rueda, Inocencio Schmidt de las Heras, José Veiga Roel and Luis Zamora, and the selection is completed with photographs from Manuel Ferrol and Ricard Terré. Of Terré’s work, photographs taken in the nineteen-fifties in Barcelona are selected, owing to the importance they had in the debates ofthe AFG, but also some taken in Galicia in the early nineteen-sixties. OfFerrol’s work, photographs of the Emigration series that were not sent to competitions have been selected, because, as in the case of Raniero, they hold much more interest for us than those that were actually submitted. In addition to this small selection of the work of each of these photographers, documentation has been included, such as Raniero’s correspondence with the members of the AFG. association newsletters and catalogues of contests and shows, as well as images showing how photographs were displayed at those contests and shows. In short, our aim is to create an atmosphere in the room that brings the dynamics of the associations closer to us.

With regard to Raniero’s photographs, we attempt to approach to his experience and perception of photography, paying particular attention to how his archive is configured and what it meant for him. This led us to dedicate a room to the series of granaries, stone crosses and goldsmithing. Most of these photographs are shown in polyptychs with a significant number of images, 60 in the case of granaries and 42 in the case of stone crosses, in addition to some which are displayed individually. We consider polyptychs to be the best way to show the significance of these projects, since the photographs cannot be considered individually, rather as part of a whole. Moreover, this is in keeping with the way the photographs were displayed at AFG exhibitions, albeit with a different intentionality. We also felt it necessary to bring parts of the archive into the room, such as the small copies, the folders with the study photographs, and the notebooks with the notes referred to above, because they transcend the anecdotal and help to understand the meaning of the archive for Raniero.

As a criterion when selecting the photographs, in addition to the series mentioned above, we have paid special attention to the work done in the port of Vigo, and to other images with documentary interest that bring us closer to a world that has disappeared today, but we also include some that can be defined as costumbrist and others, such as the nocturnal images, in order to allow a fuller appreciation of his work.

In the selection, priority has been given to the prints made by the author himself at the time, but without becoming enslaved. Thus, when we considered that the copies did not meet the appropriate conditions for being displayed, new copies were made, the respecting always framing that the author had made in his day. In the case of those images for which there was no exhibition copy, as a general criterion, the whole of the negative has been respected, except in the polyptychs 40 stone crosses and granaries, which have been trimmed according to the criteria extrapolated on the basis of the existing copies. We did so because we consider that the polyptychs for these series must be made up of photographs of one single format (30 x 40 cm). For individual photographs, the same approach was followed as in the other series.

It is our hope that this exhibition and this publication will lead to the work of Raniero Fernández to being assessed fairly.

Vigo, June 2022

1. A more detailed analysis of what the photographic Associations meant can be found in Manuel Sendón, Imaxes na penumbra. A fotografía afeccionada en Galicia (1050-1965, Xerais, Vigo, 1998. In Manuel Sendón & Xosé Luís Suárez Canal, En Galiza nos 50. As agrupacións fotográficas, Vigo City Council, 1990, which was the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, photographs can be seen from a significant number of photographers who were members of the different Galician photographic associations.

2. Daniel Masclet, ‘Fotografía española en París,’ AFAL, No. 6, 1956 (pages not numbered).Also published in the magazine Cine-Photo-Magazine.

3.  Inocencio Schmidt de las Heras, ‘Cómo hago mis fotografías,’ Arte Fotográfico, No. 6, 1952, p. 210.

4. A. Y., ‘¿Es la fotografía arte?,’ Boletín de la Sociedad Fotográfica de La Coruña, No. 12, 1959 (pages not numbered).

5.  Cited in: André Rouillé, ‘Primera madurez de la fotografía,’ in Jean-Claude Legmany & André Rouillé (dirs.), Historia de la Fotografía,Martínez Roca, Barcelona, 1988, p. 98.

6. Conversation with Luis Zamora in June 1995.

7.  ‘As pastoras das fotografías’ (16 March 1958), radio broadcasts, which subsequently appeared in Galicia emigrante. Escolma de textos da audición radial de Luis Seoane 1954-1971, Galician version and edition by Lino Braxe & Xavier Seoane, Ediciós do Castro, Sada, A Coruña, 1989, pp. 429-430.

8. Terré in 1954, 1956 and 1957, Gabriel Cualladó in 1956 and 1957, and Pérez Siquier in 1954.

9. Letter from Ricard Terré to Raniero Fernández (17 January 1959).

10. Letter from José Veiga Roel to Raniero Fernández (20 March 1957).

11.  Letter from Fernando Ximénez to Raniero Fernández (5 December 1957).

12. Letter from Luis Zamora to Raniero Fernández (14 April 1957).

13. Conversation held with Luis Gutiérrez Diezquijada in April 1996.

14. Ricard Terré, in ‘Catálogo del VII Concurso Nacional y III Ibérico de Fotografía Artística,’ Boletín de la Agrupación Fotográfica Gallega, May 1960 (pages not numbered).

15. Conversation with Ricard Terré in November 1995.

16. From Our Correspondent, ‘La actualidad fotográfica en Barcelona,’ Arte Fotográfico, No. 134,1963, p. 183.

17. Raniero Fernández’s declarations, made in the nineteen-nineties, were taken from the books: Manuel Sendón, Imaxes na penumbra, op. cit. and Manuel Sendón & Xosé Luís Suárez Canal, Raniero Fernández, Centro de Estudos Fotográficos, Vigo, 1996.

18. For that exhibition, a small catalogue with a selection of images of the two photographers mentioned was also published.

19. Carlos Espinosa, ‘La familia del hombre,’ Boletín de la Agrupación Fotográfica Gallega, No. 30, 1958 (pages not numbered).

20. Raniero Fernández, ‘Cómo debe ser la fotografía gallega’ (interview), Boletín de la Agrupación Fotográfica Gallega, No. 42, 1962 (pages not numbered).

21. Letter to Luis Casado (16 July 1961).

22. ‘La Interpress-Photo 1960,’ Boletín de la Agrupación Fotográfica Gallega, No. 37, 1961 (pages not numbered).

23. However, in the book there are 12 photographs of stone crosses, 8 of them taken by José Pacheco, where the context does appear.

24. Alfonso Daniel Manuel Rodríguez Castelao, As cruces de pedra na Galiza, Akal, Madrid, 1975, p. 97.

25. Begoña Bas López, Construccións populares galegas, Bankunión, A Coruña, 1980.

26. Raniero Fernández’s work was also included in the book, Crónica dunha cidade, published by Vigo City Council, and, in 1990, in the catalogue for the exhibition En Galiza no 50. As agrupacións fotográficas, within the setting of the 6h Vigo Photobiennial. His images were also included in the exhibition Tiempos de silencio, andappeared in the exhibition catalogue, published by the Government of Catalonia in 1992. He also has an entry in the Diccionario de fotógrafos españoles. Del siglo XIX al XX, La Fábrica, Madrid, 2013.

27. Letter from Raniero Fernández to José Veiga Roel (16 September 1956).

28. Francisco Macías Rodríguez, ‘De “re” artística,’ Arte Fotográfico, No. 21, 1953, p. 429. 29. Pedras santas, also titled Pórtico real, was submitted to at least ten shows, Nocturno nas Praterías twoat least five, and Quintana a media noite to a minimum of three, with five submissions with the title of Nocturno compostelán and another with the title of Compostela durminte being recorded.

30. View of Betanzos which, in the 7th National Exhibition of Maritime Photography, organised by AFALin1956, carried off the prize for ‘the work with the most merit within a classical trend.’