Josep Maria Roset

Josep Maria Roset was a Catalan photographer, documentary maker and cultural promoter. For more than 50 years in his profession, he has carried out a valuable photographic documentary work in which he has stood out for photographing subjects of international scope and for an almost notary-like commitment to documenting the time he lived through: the democratic transition in the Vallès region; as well as for the forceful personality of his photographic language.

 

His personal legacy is one of the most extensive in Catalan photography, with almost three hundred and fifty thousand negatives. His documentary collection, compiled over more than 40 years, is one of the largest in Catalonia on local subjects. Between the historical collection and his personal archive, he has almost half a million photographic objects, including photographic prints, glass plates and celluloid negatives.

 

He opened his first studio in Rubí in 1957, and between 1959 and 1962 he worked in Madrid and France as a photojournalist, producing highly prestigious photographic reports, such as the wedding of the King of Persia and the death of Dr. Gregorio Marañón. In 1962 he returned to Rubí, where in 1966 he opened a new studio, from where he documented the social life of the town and the region.

In 1967 he took part in the foundation of the Grupo Fotográfico el Gra, and in 1973 he founded with other colleagues the Doble Sis art gallery in Rubí, a reference point for the artistic avant-garde in the Vallès region.

 

The images shown here under the title The uneasiness of watching are a clear example of some of his work. Photographs created with a firm documentary will but which go far beyond their purpose, revealing a magical costumbrismo full of unexpected discoveries and moments. A look that seeks the extraordinary gesture in the everyday environment. The magic of ordinary days.