Nord d'Africa. Ortiz Echague

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North Africa MNAC

José Ortiz Echagüe, considered by some critics to be one of Spain’s leading photographers, is currently being celebrated at the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya (MNAC).

In 1906, Echagüe travelled to Rif, a region in northern Morocco, as a member of the photography service of the Spanish Army. He captured the humble side of life in this city—the local customs and everyday aspects that could otherwise be overlooked.

Echagüe returned to Morocco 50 years later only to find that the primitive exoticism that he had once captured through a lens had disappeared. The country was now modernised. Echagüe attempted to communicate a nostalgia for the original Rif he had experienced by photographing the few remaining people, who were now out of context in the modern society, against a backdrop of solitary landscapes.

The MNAC has collected 79 of his photographs from these stages of his work to facilitate an understanding of Echagüe’s experience in North Africa.

Free entry. To find out more check the MNAC's webpage.