Agustí Centelles i Ossó (Valencia, 1909-Barcelona, 1985) devoted his whole life to photography. On the foundation of Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya (1923), he enrolled a course in retouching techniques by Francesc de Baños, who he started to work for. A few months later, he went to work as an apprentice of a section on rotogravure in ‘El Día Gráfico’, a newspaper with the latest printing breakthroughs.
While working for this newspaper, he met the photojournalist Josep Badosa and decided to give up his day and night jobs, and work exclusively for him. For four years and a half, he learnt his trade as a reporter with a 9x12 machine. In 1932 he worked as an assistant and an apprentice with Josep Maria Sagarra and Pau Lluís Torrents, two of the most acknowledged Barcelona photojournalists. It was at this point that his professional rebelliousness started, as they used to order from where he had to take his photographs from.
Centelles lived in the golden age of photojournalism and did not remain indifferent to everything happening around him like cinema and illustrated magazines. All these events, together with his lively personality –he defined himself as an ‘image hunter’– turned him into a modern and dynamic journalist.
In May 1934 Sagarra and Torrents split up and Centelles went unemployed. One month before, he had bought himself a new Leica, the ideal device that allowed him to perform his philosophy of photojournalism, a light camera with exchangeable lenses which managed to take photographs quickly.
He continued his career solo. In very few months, the signature ‘Centelles’ was common in Barcelona newspapers. By the end of that year, he had published in foreign media. Even the agency Havas flew to Barcelona to pick up the photographs of his documentary on the events of October.
During his career as a freelancer, Centelles captured with his Leica the political, social and cultural life of Catalunya. He depicted relevant characters, popular festivals, sports and cultural events. Centelles also took great interest in social and political issues. During the Second Spanish Republic he recorded, on the one hand, robberies, evacuations, trials and demonstrations, and, on the other, scenes on parliamentary life, ceremonies of political parties or elections.
When the military insurrection of 18 July 1936 took place, Centelles was a widely recognized journalist who published daily in such well-known newspapers as ‘La Vanguardia’, ‘El Día Gráfico’, ‘La Noche’, ‘La Humanitat’, ‘La Rambla’, ‘Última Hora’, ‘La Publicitat’ or ‘L’Opinió’. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, most papers were confiscated and some of them were taken over by political parties or the Catalan government, the Generalitat. It was then that the Catalan photojournalist published in ‘La Veu de Catalunya’, ‘Treball’ or ‘La Batalla’.
Apart from his freelancing task for the Catalan press, many images by Centelles were internationally widespread through the agencies Havas or Fulgur, and they were used as propaganda supports. His most famous photography was taken on 19 July 1936 in Barcelona: shock troops barricaded behind dead horses.
During the early days of the conflict he was assigned to make reports on the troops at the front of Aragon and the return to normality in the city of Barcelona. He was the only photojournalist who captured on the sly images of the trials against the soldiers who took part in the coup, held in Barcelona in August 1936. In September 1937 he was mobilized and became the official photographer of the Eastern army.
He also contributed to the Catalan Propaganda Commission of the Catalan government led by Jaume Miravitlles, an institution which assigned him to go from the fronts of the Aragon Pyrenees to Teruel. At the end of the year, he was required by the Spanish Department of Administration and from 1938 he was appointed as the head of the photographic cabinet of the Military Investigation Service (SIM).
With the fall of Barcelona at the hands of Franco, in January 1939, together with his cabinet colleagues, he crossed the border loaded with cameras and a suitcase of negatives of his own personal archive. He was arrested and put in the concentration camp of Argelès-sur-Mer and, later, in Bram.
During his stay in Bram, together with his assistant Salvador Pujol, he even set up a small photography lab which allowed him to improve the life conditions of many of his colleagues. The images were developed and positivized in barrack 62 of the D department, the room where they slept and worked. Currently, there are nearly 600 images and his personal diary written during his stay in Bram, an exceptional legacy of European photodocuments.
From September 1939 Centelles lived in Carcassonne and worked as a photographer for several local businesses. In 1942 he started collaborating with organized Resistance groups of Spanish Republicans from the Group of Foreign Workers (GTE) 422. In the basement of his workplace, he installed –without his boss knowing it– a clandestine lab, where he took pictures for counterfeit identification documents. The Gestapo made a plundering raid and the leaders of GTE were deported to the extermination camp of Mauthausen. The lab was in danger as was Centelles’ life. In spring 1944 he decided to go back to Spain on the sly crossing the Pyrenees on foot. Prior to his return, he had properly protected his archive of negatives in a wooden box in the attic of the Dejeihls, the family who had taken him in during his exile in France.
His clandestine situation forced him to settle in Reus, at the house of some relatives who also offered him a job. He never gave up his photography task. He participated in photography competitions organized by the Centre de Lectura de Reus and won more than one award under the name of Agustín Ossó.
In 1947 he returned to Barcelona, where he set up a studio and lab. Under the accusation of masonry, he was tried and disqualified. Since then, he stopped doing photojournalism and, until his retirement, he opted for industrial and advertising photography.
On Franco’s death in 1976, he travelled to Carcassonne to retrieve the negatives he had left during his exile thirty years ago. He then started a whole new life: he published his material, made exhibitions and talks on his photographies and received public recognition of Barcelona photojournalists, both from the postwar professional generations to the younger ones who visited his studio on the Diagonal.
In 1984 he was awarded the National Photography Prize . He died in Barcelona one year later(*)
The photo archive was sold in November 2009 by owners lsuser the Governmen tof Spain for deposit in Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica, Salamanca, España.
()*) Awarded by the Ministry of Culture, the government of Catalonia never rewarded or acknowledged the work of Centelles.
Sergi Centelles and Octavi Centelles claim in the courts of Madrid (Spain) for theuse of the photographs published without permission or license in the Watchtower magazine, published by Jehovah's Witnesses.
While working for this newspaper, he met the photojournalist Josep Badosa and decided to give up his day and night jobs, and work exclusively for him. For four years and a half, he learnt his trade as a reporter with a 9x12 machine. In 1932 he worked as an assistant and an apprentice with Josep Maria Sagarra and Pau Lluís Torrents, two of the most acknowledged Barcelona photojournalists. It was at this point that his professional rebelliousness started, as they used to order from where he had to take his photographs from.
Centelles lived in the golden age of photojournalism and did not remain indifferent to everything happening around him like cinema and illustrated magazines. All these events, together with his lively personality –he defined himself as an ‘image hunter’– turned him into a modern and dynamic journalist.
In May 1934 Sagarra and Torrents split up and Centelles went unemployed. One month before, he had bought himself a new Leica, the ideal device that allowed him to perform his philosophy of photojournalism, a light camera with exchangeable lenses which managed to take photographs quickly.
He continued his career solo. In very few months, the signature ‘Centelles’ was common in Barcelona newspapers. By the end of that year, he had published in foreign media. Even the agency Havas flew to Barcelona to pick up the photographs of his documentary on the events of October.
During his career as a freelancer, Centelles captured with his Leica the political, social and cultural life of Catalunya. He depicted relevant characters, popular festivals, sports and cultural events. Centelles also took great interest in social and political issues. During the Second Spanish Republic he recorded, on the one hand, robberies, evacuations, trials and demonstrations, and, on the other, scenes on parliamentary life, ceremonies of political parties or elections.
When the military insurrection of 18 July 1936 took place, Centelles was a widely recognized journalist who published daily in such well-known newspapers as ‘La Vanguardia’, ‘El Día Gráfico’, ‘La Noche’, ‘La Humanitat’, ‘La Rambla’, ‘Última Hora’, ‘La Publicitat’ or ‘L’Opinió’. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, most papers were confiscated and some of them were taken over by political parties or the Catalan government, the Generalitat. It was then that the Catalan photojournalist published in ‘La Veu de Catalunya’, ‘Treball’ or ‘La Batalla’.
Apart from his freelancing task for the Catalan press, many images by Centelles were internationally widespread through the agencies Havas or Fulgur, and they were used as propaganda supports. His most famous photography was taken on 19 July 1936 in Barcelona: shock troops barricaded behind dead horses.
During the early days of the conflict he was assigned to make reports on the troops at the front of Aragon and the return to normality in the city of Barcelona. He was the only photojournalist who captured on the sly images of the trials against the soldiers who took part in the coup, held in Barcelona in August 1936. In September 1937 he was mobilized and became the official photographer of the Eastern army.
He also contributed to the Catalan Propaganda Commission of the Catalan government led by Jaume Miravitlles, an institution which assigned him to go from the fronts of the Aragon Pyrenees to Teruel. At the end of the year, he was required by the Spanish Department of Administration and from 1938 he was appointed as the head of the photographic cabinet of the Military Investigation Service (SIM).
With the fall of Barcelona at the hands of Franco, in January 1939, together with his cabinet colleagues, he crossed the border loaded with cameras and a suitcase of negatives of his own personal archive. He was arrested and put in the concentration camp of Argelès-sur-Mer and, later, in Bram.
During his stay in Bram, together with his assistant Salvador Pujol, he even set up a small photography lab which allowed him to improve the life conditions of many of his colleagues. The images were developed and positivized in barrack 62 of the D department, the room where they slept and worked. Currently, there are nearly 600 images and his personal diary written during his stay in Bram, an exceptional legacy of European photodocuments.
From September 1939 Centelles lived in Carcassonne and worked as a photographer for several local businesses. In 1942 he started collaborating with organized Resistance groups of Spanish Republicans from the Group of Foreign Workers (GTE) 422. In the basement of his workplace, he installed –without his boss knowing it– a clandestine lab, where he took pictures for counterfeit identification documents. The Gestapo made a plundering raid and the leaders of GTE were deported to the extermination camp of Mauthausen. The lab was in danger as was Centelles’ life. In spring 1944 he decided to go back to Spain on the sly crossing the Pyrenees on foot. Prior to his return, he had properly protected his archive of negatives in a wooden box in the attic of the Dejeihls, the family who had taken him in during his exile in France.
His clandestine situation forced him to settle in Reus, at the house of some relatives who also offered him a job. He never gave up his photography task. He participated in photography competitions organized by the Centre de Lectura de Reus and won more than one award under the name of Agustín Ossó.
In 1947 he returned to Barcelona, where he set up a studio and lab. Under the accusation of masonry, he was tried and disqualified. Since then, he stopped doing photojournalism and, until his retirement, he opted for industrial and advertising photography.
On Franco’s death in 1976, he travelled to Carcassonne to retrieve the negatives he had left during his exile thirty years ago. He then started a whole new life: he published his material, made exhibitions and talks on his photographies and received public recognition of Barcelona photojournalists, both from the postwar professional generations to the younger ones who visited his studio on the Diagonal.
In 1984 he was awarded the National Photography Prize . He died in Barcelona one year later(*)
The photo archive was sold in November 2009 by owners lsuser the Governmen tof Spain for deposit in Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica, Salamanca, España.
()*) Awarded by the Ministry of Culture, the government of Catalonia never rewarded or acknowledged the work of Centelles.
Sergi Centelles and Octavi Centelles claim in the courts of Madrid (Spain) for theuse of the photographs published without permission or license in the Watchtower magazine, published by Jehovah's Witnesses.
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