The lost legacy of a totem of Catalan photography: where is the Ramon Dimas archive?

BarcelonaThe photographer Ramon Dimas (Pont d'Armentera, 1919 - Santes Creus, 1965) died prematurely at the age of 46. By then, he was already one of the country's most important photographers. "Ramon Dimas, along with Francesc Català-Roca and Eugeni Forcano, forms the trio of the most outstanding photographers of the 1950s," said journalist Josep Maria Huertas Claveria (1939-2007), who also curated a Dimas exhibition held at the College of Journalism. Dimas was one of Spain's great sports photographers, whose career spanned... Sports World and later, Sports Life, the sports weekly published by Ediciones Destino. He was also known for the reports he wrote for the magazine Destination and by the photographs in the tourist guides from the same publisher, among them the Guide to Catalonia by Josep Pla.

The surprising thing is that, for now, it's impossible to know the magnitude of his legacy because Dimas's archive, which has been owned by Grupo Planeta since it bought the Destino publishing house, is missing. According to Huertas Claveria himself, Dimas's archive is supposedly in Planeta warehouses in a town in Toledo. However, the current editorial director of Destino and Grupo 62, Emili Rosales, states: "At Destino, since it became part of Grupo Planeta, there is no record whatsoever of the existence of this archive."

"My father died when I was one year old. My mother was widowed and at that time didn't take the step to find out what was happening with her father's archive," laments the photographer's daughter, Maria Dimas. When Dimas died, the owner of Destino, Josep Vergés, took charge of the archive and closed the shop that the photographer had because "the era of black and white photography had passed," as the lawyer and historian Josep Cruanyes recalled in an article published in 1992 in the magazine Head from the College of Journalists. In addition to his own photographs, Dimas's archive contained glass negatives of aviation photography that he had bought from Josep Gaspar when the latter had returned to Barcelona penniless: he had suffered an accident that prevented him from working and had forced him to abandon the photographic studios he had founded in Argentina.

A brilliant career cut short

"Ramon Dimas is a very important figure of the era in which he worked," says photography historian Laura Terré, who also points out that his archive is "one of the best organized and cataloged of its time." Unfortunately, his premature death cut short a career that still had much to offer. "He died very young, at a time when he was becoming an important professional, although he had been ill for a couple of years prior," Terré notes. "Dimas's career was meteoric, and with his death, a significant career was halted," she emphasizes. In short, Dimas is "a totem" of postwar photography that deserves to be rediscovered.

Dimas was three years older than Francesc Català-Roca, two years older than Joan Colom, and seven years older than Eugeni Forcano. "He was a pillar within the Destino publishing house, where the illustrated press and books well illustrated by photographers were very important," says Terré. To make the Guide to Catalonia He accompanied Pla by car throughout the country and also took the photographs for the guidebooks to Andalusia, the Valencian Community, Galicia, the Basque Country, and Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote. He also took the photographs for Sebastià Gasch's book. Inside the circus, also published by Destino.

Josep Pla didn't much like photographers, but he made an exception for Dimas, and when he died he dedicated a very heartfelt article to him. Destination"Ramon Dimas demonstrated a vitality, a thirst for seeing things, that I have rarely encountered." For Dimas, photography consisted of "observation, knowing how to turn things around, discovering an authentic profile." "In general," Dimas also said, "photographs are unintelligible; that is, the image one tries to convey of something has nothing to do with the thing itself. Transforming the mechanism of a photographic device into a means of expression is undoubtedly very difficult." Above all, it was necessary "to know how to look, to observe, to see things" and to make it a habit.

Among the milestones prior to specializing in sports photography are the wedding reportage of Rainier of Monaco and a portrait of Ava Gardner. He also photographed Salvador Dalí nude for the cover of the book Dalí in the nudePublished by Janés. "I haven't been able to do a detailed reconstruction of his work," Terré laments, "but in his Barcelona photo essays, you can see how he focuses on everyday life at a time when everyday life couldn't be published. He focuses on the neighborhoods, and he has a great sensitivity when it comes to capturing details." She also acknowledges his role as an "action photographer" on the football field. "Sports photography is the poor relation of photography. It seems like the photos are always the same, like those of goals, but in Dimas's photos there's a lot of atmosphere, and you also have to take into account the technical innovations he must have made, because taking those photos was difficult," the expert explains.

A very personal vision of Galicia

One of the few exhibitions of Dimas's work, specifically the photographs from the Galicia guide published by Destino, was held by the Xunta de Galicia at the Filmoteca in Santiago de Compostela in 2000. The prints on display were made from negatives found in the Destino book dossier, by Joan Teixidor. This dossier also contained previously unpublished discarded images. "We found the photographs and asked to borrow them. They charged a very high price by Galician standards," recalls journalist and writer Enrique Acuña, co-curator of the exhibition with Huertas Claveria. A year after that transaction, Andreu Teixidor sold his share of Destino to Planeta. "This is a tragedy for us," warns Andreu Teixidor.

The loss of the archive goes beyond simply not having access to the photographs; it also means the daughter is left unprotected regarding the management of the copyright. The photography shop owned by Vergés and run by Dimas. But before she died, Anna Vergés assured Maria Dimas that they had nothing and that she didn't know the whereabouts of the funds.

Of these photographs, Enrique Acuña recalls their uniqueness compared to other Galician photographers. "Dimas took a kind of photograph that very few Galician photographers could cultivate," he explains. "His urban vision greatly interested us, and he transformed things like stone markers along the roadsides and building facades into photographic subjects. He worked with medium format; I suppose he carried the camera around. He was particularly drawn to women. He didn't aim with his eyes, but rather looked down to focus." Dimas photographed the sheets that women hung to dry on large patches of grass, the luxury cars in front of the grand hotel in the Plaza del Obradoiro, the first Vespas, and the naval garrisons in Ferrol.

A boy passionate about football

Born into a farming family, Dimas was introduced to photojournalism by reporter Ramon Claret i Artigas, who met him during a trip to Pont d'Armentera and was impressed by Dimas's passion for football and his extensive knowledge. At the time, Dimas was only about eleven years old, and Claret took him to his home in Barcelona, ​​with his parents' blessing, to apprentice him. Citing Joan Bert i Pedreny, the son of one of Claret's colleagues, Cruanyes explains that Dimas was responsible for going to França station to deliver the photographs to the train conductor or the inspector of the Madrid express train. "Mr. Claret would give him a peseta for the tram fare, and with the change he would buy a sandwich," says Cruanyes.

Dimas's career took a turn shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, when he left Claret and began working at photographer Antoni Campañá's shop on Tallers Street. "Later he was mobilized and ended up as a liaison officer, with a motorcycle he couldn't pick up when he dropped it. After the war, he still had to do his military service," the article also states. Afterwards, Dimas returned to work at Campañá's shop on Rambla de Catalunya as head of the darkroom.

He began working for Destination and Sports Life While still working for Campañá, he became the magazine's main photographer when Josep Vergés took over from the first editor, Albert Maluquer. According to Cruanyes, Dimas was able to combine this work with his darkroom work, which had been his main occupation until then and what distinguished him from other professionals. "His excellent darkroom technique would be fundamental to his photography. He himself said that, apart from capturing the image, he surpassed his colleagues in darkroom work on enlargements," says Cruanyes. Among Dimas's milestones at this magazine were numerous exclusives, such as the one covering Kocis's arrival, and he became a great friend of Kubala after doing an exclusive photo essay on him at Poble Espanyol in Montjuïc.

The shop on Caspe Street

Dimas's career took another turn when he partnered with Lluís Permanyer and converted part of Permanyer's coal shop at 23 Casp Street into a photography shop (with the darkroom in the basement). Dimas let Leopoldo Pomés work in this darkroom at night. "He gave us our first paid jobs," wrote Leopoldo Pomés in his memoirs. It was not a sin. Experiences of a gaze (Ediciones 62) –: some sweaters from Ruensa and others from Nerva, and we started for the first time with professional models, a whole unknown world.” Soon the money arrived: “I gave him half a dozen Cuban cigars. I was very happy doing it, but now, when I think about it, I feel stingy. I should have given him a whole box,” Pomés stated.

The coal shop survived until Permanyer sold it to Josep Vergés in the late fifties, and he dedicated the entire space to photography. This shop was next door to the legendary 1959. It was a meeting place for photographers of the time, who brought their film to be developed.