For decades, amateur photography remained on the margins of the official history of photography, mainly due to its character as a mass activity and the shortcomings of many of its creations. For some time now, however, it has been the focus of attention because of the way in which it manifests the different social and cultural aspects of its time.
The present volume, published in connection with the exhibition of the same name at the Fundación MAPFRE KBr Photography Center, proposes a review of the phenomenon of amateur and popular photography in Catalonia prior to the Civil War, focusing on a selection of recurring themes and visual motifs of the period. It allows us to understand who took up photography as a hobby and how the photographic language was constituted at the beginning of the 20th century, combining the parameters of the international market, the technical and artistic aspirations of amateur photographers and the specific social and cultural features of the territory.