Orthós

Burlada, Sala de Cultura de la Caja de Ahorros de Navarra, 1983. Designed by América Sánchez. 
8vo, [12] pp.incl.wr., ill.

Signed and inscribed: “Para los Clergue / padre e hija / Manolo / Santander, 30/8/84” [For the Clergues, father and daughter. Manolo. Santander, 30 August 84].

Rare exhibition catalogue in booklet form of the Spanish photographer Manuel (Manolo) Laguillo (b. 1953). Born in Madrid, Laguillo has lived in Barcelona since 1972 and taught photography at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona from 1980 until 2024, holding a professorship from the mid-1990s. He is best known today for his urban documentary work, above all his long record of Barcelona’s transformation.

Published for the exhibition held in the cultural hall of the Caja de Ahorros de Navarra (Navarre Savings Bank) in Burlada, just outside Pamplona, from 20 to 31 May 1983, the catalogue shows an earlier and less familiar Laguillo. In September 1982 a grant from the Caja de Ahorros de Barcelona allowed him to research platinum and palladium printing, and all five works reproduced here are palladium prints, dated between November 1982 and February 1983. The front cover shows a laced black boot, and a second photograph, captioned with the same date and time of day, a shoe on a massive, cracked sole. Both appear to be orthopaedic. The other three turn to architecture: a staircase in the hospice at Olot, a weathered wall by the port of Barcelona and an abandoned factory at El Catllar, near Tarragona.

The title, from the Greek for “straight” or “correct” and the root of “orthopaedic”, is glossed in Spanish inside the front cover, above a short extract from Laguillo’s writing in which he objects to being labelled an “urban landscape photographer”. A biography on the inside back cover lists his writings, exhibitions and collections.

Provenance

Lucien Clergue (1934–2014), French photographer, co-founder of the Rencontres d’Arles (1970), first photographer elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts (2006) and its president in 2013. The “daughter” of the inscription is one of his two daughters: Anne (b. 1963), later a gallerist and curator in Arles, or Olivia (b. 1965), Picasso’s goddaughter.

Binding & condition

Original pictorial wrappers. Inscribed on the inside front cover. Good: very lightly rubbed, rust to staples.