The photographs of Manel Lladó Aliu in the background of INSPAI

On May 30, the entry of the Manel Lladó Aliu Fund was presented to INSPAI, the Image Center of the Girona County Council, with the participation of the second vice-president and Deputy for Culture in functions of the Girona County Council, Albert Piñeira; by the photojournalist Manel Lladó; and from the head of INSPAI, Center for the Image of the Provincial Government of Girona, Natàlia Navarro.

On March 22, 2022, the donation of Manel Lladó Aliu's photographic collection was signed between the Diputació de Girona and the photographer himself, so that it will be treated and preserved at INSPAI, the Image Center of the Diputació de Girona.

The Manel Lladó Aliu personal collection is a photographic collection dated between 1984 and 2021 and made up of approximately 250,000 photographs, supported by paper, polyester plastic, cellulose acetate plastic and images of digital origin. It represents a graphic memory of the Girona counties, based on his facet as a photojournalist in various media, but also as a photographer of nature, fashion, studio portraits, weddings, heritage elements, advertising photography, etc.

The photographs portray important characters, writers, actors, artists and politicians. Also with the theme of nature photography, gallery photography, aerial photography, heritage photography, commercial postcards, photojournalism, social life and events, politics, events, urban planning and social photography.

The photographic formats that make up the fund range from 35 mm, slides and digital images in JPEG, from black and white to color, each typology represents in equal parts the entirety of the fund. And the photographic technique for analog images is gelatin silver chemical development.

This Manel Lladó photographic fund responds perfectly to INSPAI's operating logic, by promoting the preservation of image funds that are of interest for their documentary, informative or artistic value, and that have been generated or that are directly related to the demarcation . And what's more, it does so as a donation, allowing the images to become part of the heritage of the Diputació de Girona.

Since its inception, the inflow of funds from press photographers and photojournalists has been one of INSPAI's priorities. From the initial income of the Pablito, Joan Comalat or Dani Duch funds, then passing through those of Rafael Vilarrubias, Jordi Soler or Miquel Ruiz and up to the most recent such as that of Pep Iglésias and Marçal Molas. A trajectory that has logical continuity with the entry of the Manel Lladó fund. This set of funds make up a corpus of images with exceptional value, as they document, and Manel Lladó's fund exemplifies it perfectly, the most recent history of Girona's counties, seen from the perspective of image professionals who work in the media, a language that disseminates a knowledge deeply rooted in the territory and its reality.

The Manel Lladó fund includes events in the social life of Girona's counties, political events, institutional visits, events, and also the urban changes that Girona's territory has undergone over the years, trips, excursions, and aerial photographs, already that for many years Manel Lladó was invited to fly in a helicopter and made jumps with parachutes that were captured by his camera.

For a time he resided in the municipality of Aiguaviva where he produced several reports dedicated to the municipality, such as that of the town's farmhouses, some of which have now disappeared.

INSPIRATION

This year 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the embryo of INSPAI, the Image Center. In 1993, the Massanas Family deposited the works of the Girona collector Emili Massanas i Burcet with the Diputació, and thus the current INSPAI, Image Center of the Diputació de Girona, was established, dedicated exclusively to photography , in the image, to initially organize, preserve and make available to the public the legacy that constituted the fund and the photographic collection of Emili Massanas.

INSPAI is a specialized public service that forms part of the Area of Culture, New Technologies, Sports and Education of the Diputació de Girona, and which is characterized by the fact that it is one of the few specific facilities dedicated to the collection, treatment, conservation, the dissemination, creation and promotion of the image, as well as training and technical advice aimed at municipalities and cultural centers and facilities.

Since then, the photographic collections and funds have continued to grow. The successive revenues from INSPAI have abundantly nourished the Diputació de Girona with a valuable and very important photographic base that allows tracing, not only the history of photography in our regions, but also the history of these Girona regions, since the middle of the s. 19th century to the present, in its cultural, social, sporting, political aspects...

Manel Lladó Aliu

Manel Lladó Aliu (Girona, 1961), photojournalist who was head of photography for El Punt

His activity in photography began as an amateur and in a self-taught manner, portraying everything related to social and street reportage in the surroundings of the town of Salt.

From 1984, the Institut d'Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya (IEFC) began training with courses, seminars and theoretical-practical photography studies on social reportage, portraiture, study, fashion and photojournalism.

He worked as a correspondent photographer for the choir magazine Lecturas and the Cover agency in Madrid, covering the regions of Girona. He was also a collaborator of different regional and national media such as Interviu, Panorama, Abc, Diari de Galícia, El 9 Nou and La Vanguardia, among others carrying out photographic work in the field of fashion and advertising.

In 1991 he joined the team of the newspaper El Punt as a graphic editor, and in 1992 he was appointed head of photography of the newspaper El Punt, and has held exhibitions and participated as a judge in several photography competitions regional and national. The geographical scope of the photographs is concentrated in the Girona counties, Catalonia, Spain, Europe.

From 1998 to 2000, he has been making a selection of the best analog images, which the author has revealed on paper, for his personal enjoyment. From the year 2000 he began to work with digital photography, which considerably increased the volume of his collection.