The things that were Temporary exhibition

A photograph is a process of selection. Of all the possible moments, the camera freezes one. In the Girona of the 1960s, the photographic eye selected the flower exhibition in the Benedictine abbey of Sant Pere de Galligants, the Corpus Christi procession, the local festival of Saint Narcissus held in La Devesa park. A photograph is also a process of concealment, hiding the scars of the post-war period when Girona was a grey city of soldiers and priests, a fearful city enclosed by imaginary walls. Later, the postcard city of Girona came with 'the' postcard shot of Girona. The first step was the restoration of the houses lining the Onyar river. Through the restoration plan, a skyline was created, an urban profile that is the metonymy of Girona. The second step was the recovery of Girona's Jewish legacy. The city was given a new narrative and reclaimed its past. And two new tiles have been added to the mosaic. Girona's success as a tourist destination owes a lot to this new scenario. Soon, however, nobody will be compiling the traditional photo albums. Digital images have displaced the old cameras and changed everything. Mobile phones have replaced scarcity with abundance. And since 2020, our smiles are hidden behind face masks. There are no tourist images because there are no tourists. And what is a touristic city without tourists? Does a place really exist if no one photographs it?

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In the 1960s, people took pictures with cameras like these, in emblematic locations in monumental Girona. Postcards were made, and sent to family and friends as a souvenir of a memorable visit. The Rolleiflex TLR and the Bolex 160 Macrozoom are part of the collection donated by Josep Granés to the Museum in 1993. They evoke the times when old cameras with their limited capacity captured the soul of a city that was discovering the world and internationalised it in colourful postcards.