Juan Laurent was one of the most prominent photographers in the second half of XIX century in Spain, both for its production – more than 11,000 original negatives are preserved – and for its quality. A graphic documentary archive of incalculable value to recover that stage of our history.
Juan Laurent: photography before art, is a sound documentary by Samuel Alarcón, which shows the role of photography in 19th century Spanish society through the business and creative activity of Juan Laurent.
Juan Laurent – actually Jean Laurent – was born in France in 1816, but moved to Spain where he developed the main bulk of his professional activity. In 1856 he opened his photographic studio in Madrid, at number 59 of the San Jerónimo race, where Laurent will photograph the most relevant figures of the moment, from Espartero The Prim, until the queen Isabel II, through important personalities of culture and society.
Always in connection with the French Photographic Society, Laurent brings to our country the latest developments in photographic technique, which allow him to expand his production and differentiate himself from other photographers. Patents the decorated fans with photography, the leptographic paper together with Martínez Sánchez -precursor of the barium paper-, and even a negative coloring method that doesn’t work. He is also one of the introducers in Spain of the Visit card, from photo sculpture, or also of the stereoscopic photography. It is also one of the first to make use of the artificial lighting applied to photography.
In addition, Laurent receives important commissions to register public works – railway bridges, lighthouses or ports – or collections of motu proprio with views of monuments and cities in Spain and Portugal, as well as folklore and popular customs. His photographs of works of art and decorative arts stand out, as evidenced by his series in the Prado Museum, the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts or San Lorenzo del Escorial. His wet collodion plates immortalized works by Leoni, Van Eyck, Murillo, Tiziano, Dürer or Goya, among many others.
From the latter, Laurent is commissioned to photograph the wall paintings that remain on the walls of the Quinta del Sordo, on the outskirts of Madrid. Laurent photographed the Black Paintings before they were famous and, thanks to his snapshots, we know essential data for the knowledge of them.
In the documentary we have the testimony of the Doctor in Art History, Mayte Diaz French, autora de J. Laurent (1816-1886): a photographer between business and art; Isabel Ortega Garcia, responsible for the Graphic Material and Photography Fund of the National Library of Spain; Carlos Teixidor, curator of the Ruiz-Vernacci Archive in Cultural Heritage of Spain, where a good part of Laurent’s archive is preserved; Rachel Esteban, restorative; Y Joaquin Paredes, an expert photographer in 19th century photography techniques.
RNE Documents it is emitted on Fridays, from 23 to 24 hours, by National Radio.
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