The First Golden Age

laprimeraedaddeoroThere is no doubt that the new reality fixing system was enormously accepted and a resounding success among all citizens who immediately directed their demand towards two differentiated products, portraiture and landscape, but with a common background, the apprehension of the immediate, of its hallmarks. Photography gradually made possible the democratization of the image, until then exclusive to the elites, of those capable of paying for the work of a brush artist. At the end of the 19th century, many could already have, among their most precious assets and at a reasonable price, their own portrait, that of their loved ones, or a snapshot of their physical environment: their home, street, parish or city. It is not surprising that in the capital Guadalajara, between 1900 and 1920, several photographers settled permanently, among which we must mention, among others, Manuel ARIZA (since 1897), Francisco MARÍ (1906), ANGEL ARQUER (1912) or, to Francisco GONI (1918), dedicated more to press photography than to the cabinet image like the rest of his colleagues. But the true engine of photography in Guadalajara will be the Photographic Service. This body linked to the Military Aerostation, in addition to attending to its own military interests, functioned as a true school for photographers, later incorporated into civil society. Professionals as prestigious and creative as Jose Ortiz Echague, Eduardo SUSANNA, or José REYES RUIZ, all of them members of the pictorialist currents.

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