Date of reading: 01/01/1987

Board of Examiners:

GONZALEZ PORTILLA MANUEL (Chairperson)
COMPANY RAMON JUAN MIGUEL (Member)
VILCHES MANTEROLA LORENZO (Member)
ZUNZUNEGUI DIEZ SANTOS (Member)
SUSPERREGUI ETXEBESTE JOSE MANUEL (Secretary)

Descriptors:

SCIENCE OF ARTS AND LETTERS
PHOTOGRAPHY
THEORY, ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM OF FINE ARTS

Summary:

PHOTOGRAPHY APPEARED IN THE VIZCAYAN DAILY PRESS AFTER 1892. THIS NEW WAY OF INFORMING THE PUBLIC VIA PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES WHOSE USE DEPENDED ON PHOTOENGRAVING AND SPECIALIZED PRINTING SYSTEMS HAD TO WAIT UNTIL 1913 TO BECOME COMMONPLACE IN MOST OF THE LOCAL DAILY NEWSPAPERS. AFTER THAT TIME, PHOTOGRAPHY STARTED TO GAIN GENUINE PROMINENCE IN CURRENT AFFAIRS, LEADING TO THE EMERGENCE OF THE REPORTER-PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER AND PHOTOJOURNALISM. THIS INFORMATIVE ASPECT MEANT THAT IT WOULD VARY ITS FUNCTION IN RELATION TO PREVIOUS YEARS WHEN IT HAD ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY TAKEN THE FORM OF DECORATIVE WORK TO MAKE THE MEDIA IN WHICH IT APPEARED MORE ATTRACTIVE, WITH THE RESULTING INCREASE IN SALES OF COPIES. NEW PRINTING SYSTEMS WERE WHAT ENABLED THIS MOVE FORWARD TO TAKE PLACE IN TERMS OF THE AESTHETIC FUNCTION TOWARDS THE REPORTING OF CURRENT AFFAIRS.
FROM THIS MOMENT ONWARDS THE EVENTS OF A SINGLE DAY WERE ABLE TO BE SEEN IN PRINTED FORM AND CONTEMPLATED IN PHOTOGRAPHS THE NEXT MORNING. PHOTOJOURNALISM WOULD BECOME DEFINITIVELY ESTABLISHED IN THE BASQUE DAILY PRESS VIA NEWSPAPERS FROM VIZCAYA. THE NATURE OF CURRENT AFFAIRS, MADE POSSIBLE BY TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES AND SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHIC TOOLS, DID NOT PROVE TO BE IN DETRIMENT OF NEWSPAPER AESTHETICS THAT USED DESIGNS WITH FORMS THAT WERE FAR REMOVED FROM THE CLASSIC RECTANGULAR SHAPE OF PHOTOGRAPHS - THEY WERE NOW ALSO PRESENTED SURROUNDED BY DRAWINGS AND BORDERS WITH CLEAR REFERENCES TO WHAT WAS KNOWN AS ART DECO, IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMBINE DRAWING AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN A SINGLE HARMONIOUS AND INFORMATIVE WHOLE.

ON OCCASIONS, DIFFERENT TONES WOULD BE EMPLOYED AND THERE WERE EVEN TIMES (1928) WHEN THREE-COLOURED PRINTING WAS ALSO USED - I.E. COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS.
THE SUBJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY GRAPHIC REPORTERS (IN SOME CASES WITH AN EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT FOR A SINGLE NEWSPAPER) WERE THE MOST DIVERSE IMAGINABLE, MARKED BY THE EVENTS AND BY THE DIFFERENT POLITICAL PHASES THAT…