img. from book cover.

The Maritime Museum of Barcelona (MMB) holds the exquisite seafaring work of pictorialist photographer Joaquim Pla Janini: a total of 34 bromoils (most of them transferred) and a copy in gelatine and silver acquired later on in 2021, made between 1927 and 1962. They are photographs of great beauty featuring landscapes and seafarers. They all deal with customary and nice issues and escape the critical and committed gaze of a post-war era marked by authoritarian state censorship. The relationship between Joaquim Pla Janini and the sea results in a beautiful series of maritime photographs with serene scenes full of saltpetre from our shores. They reflect a longing for the pursuit of technical and aesthetic perfection.

Joaquim Pla Janini practiced different photographic processes throughout his life, but transferred bromoil was the tool that allowed him to build his work. His inexhaustible devotion to this photographic process, as well as the way he practiced, improved and shared it, has given us copies of extraordinary quality and work with an unmistakable stamp.

The online publication Bromoils. Pictorialist photography of Joaquim Pla Janini, published by the Museu Marítim in Barcelona, brings together research and thoughts about a man and an artistic movement. Although it isn’t strictly speaking a catalogue, it does nevertheless come out of an exhibition which in turn meets the need to display and champion the work of this unique photographer.

Text are in English, Catalan and Spanish.

The technique explained: