Family, friends and photography
By Charlotte Stace
The Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona holds the exhibition, ‘Family, friends and photography. The home photographic space’.
Prior to the smartphone, families had to make do with conventional film cameras. Attics would be filled with boxes of print photographs and negatives, brought out to look through occasionally. Film cameras have made something of a comeback in recent years - partly a hipster trend, partly a cry for the grainy, nostalgia of years gone by. Yet, our mobiles have almost completely replaced film cameras, leaving our family photos somewhere in the cloud, often forgotten, and almost never printed out.
This exhibition seeks to acknowledge the symbolic value of home photography of the past. It looks at how those photographs strengthened family ties and acted as emblems to be displayed over the fireplace or walls, or placed in photo albums for all to see. The exhibition runs until October 20th. Entrance is free.