Miguel Sánchez
In general terms, it is easy to see how history is governed by far-reaching social forces. In this way, collective interests are grouped into social classes, nations, or beliefs. What's more, all this is conveyed through a wide list of political organizations where the individual's action is severely diminished, no matter how powerful he might be. Nevertheless, even in the most virulent processes chance can do its thing. Something very well exemplified in the biography of Antoni Campañà. One of the most important photographers to understand not only the Spanish Civil War but also the beginnings of SEAT.
However, in this story the crucial point is located in the Bruc barracks during January 1939. Just the days when Franco's troops entered Barcelona. Beginning a broad retaliation against Republican fighters that, for almost three years, they had organized both into militias and government forces. Thus, many of them fled to the French border. On many occasions, ready to continue their fight by participating in the Second World War. However, Antoni Campañà decided to turn himself in to the new authorities hoping for an uncertain fate.
At this point, everything was quite uncertain. For one thing, he had served in the Republican Army since 1938. That was true. But also the one who had simply done it as a driver for an aviation officer. Furthermore, although Since the outbreak of the conflict, he has worked for the Propaganda Commissariat and the Ministry of DefenseIn truth, almost any reporter was forced to do so by the situation. Even more after the collectivization of certain services in charge of the anarchist militias of the CNT-AIT.
In any case, thanks to chance, his case was seen in a much more expeditious manner than could have been anticipated. And it is that, as soon as he entered the barracks, he was recognized by José Ortiz Echagüe. A polyhedral character who can be known for several and very different reasons. To begin with, he was the creator in 1923 of Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA One of the pioneers of aviation, author of the first metallic fuselages in Spain, thus replacing the flimsy bodies made of wood and fabric.
In addition, Ortiz Echagüe also served as a pilot during his years in the army. In fact, in April 1914 he and Emilio Herrera made the first flight between Africa and Europe over the Strait of Gibraltar. Having said that, the second way in which this engineer is well known has to do with SEAT. Not in vain, he was its first president from 1950 to 1967. That said, the third job in which this man born in 1886 stood out was the photographer. What's more, between the thirties and forties he signed some of the most amazing snapshots of the moment. Full of plasticity, not only an elaborate framing but also an excellent development work stood out in them.
Just one of the aspects in which Antoni Campañà stood out the most, who had been working professionally in reportage photography since the twenties. In fact, in the XNUMXs some of his snapshots achieved international recognition. a journalistic activity combined with the management of its own specialized store in Barcelona's Tallers street since 1933. In short, Antoni Campañà was surely recognized by Ortiz Echagüe from the first moment he entered to surrender to Franco's troops at the Bruc barracks.
Something normal then, not in vain, despite the distance marked by the rival factions, both men were photographers as renowned as they were talented. Thus, Ortiz Echagüe - at that time a high-ranking military among the troops in rebellion against the Republic - personally protected his fellow ranks in the world of photography. In this way, in 1940 Antoni Campañà returned to his profession after obtaining a license as a photojournalist. Furthermore, two years later he reopens his own photographic studio.
However, the silence imposed during the postwar period hid his extensive work on Republican Barcelona. It's more, Until very recently, many of the thousands of shots taken in that period have not been revealed.. Something fortunately valued thanks to the documentary La Caja Roja as well as the exhibition La Guerra Infinita held last 2021 at the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. With all this, the truth is that this photographer did not touch political issues again in the rest of his career.
Far from it, even in 1952 he founded a stamp for the aseptic mission of marketing tourist postcards. However, Ortiz Echagüe reappeared in the life of Antoni Campañà just around 1953. The year in which SEAT needed a specialized photographer in promotional work because, after all, in that year the commercialization of the 1400 began under a FIAT license presided over by Vittorio Valleta. With all this, although today SEAT has very few digitized images, in them you can see a quality that was rare in the catalogs of the time.
In fact, beyond the typical commercial photographs, Antoni Campañà devised compositions like the one in which he placed 1400 C in a nocturnal and industrial setting. Besides, your snapshots are crucial in illustrating productive activity during the first years of SEAT. Thanks to this, in its catalog we can not only see the industrial growth in the Free Zone, but also the interior of its production chains. And it is that, beyond automobiles, the automotive industry has a multitude of stories in which there is room for all kinds of trades
Photographs: National Museum of Art of Catalonia / Historic SEATs
