Sandy King wrote:
>I never met Echague but learned a lot about him from an old friend,
He was not easy to reach... When I told the Spanish press I had a meeting
with him they refused to believe me. If I had said I had a meeting with the
King or the Pope they would have believed me but with Echague, it was
inconceivable, or so they thought...
>Gerardo Vielba. Vielba mentioned, among other things, that Echague always
>worked from paper negatives when printing fresson,
I think so.
>and that *all* of his fresson prints with clouds were combination
I might know of one exception (I'd have to check old notes) but it is
probably a fair statement. He sure did have a knack for getting things
right with the paper negative process. Even the concept of using a "low
resolution" paper neg turned me off until I saw what could be done with it.
The only problem is that you need long exposure times with paper negs.
>prints (it is hard to find
>those clouds at the right place and time in Spain!).
Yep!
>Echague's star has been temporarlily eclipsed in his native Spain. For many
>contemporary photo-historians his work is linked to and identified with the
>Franco regime and is seen as inconsistent with the values of the
>new democratic country.
Touuuche'! Being responsible for a State-controlled auto and airplane
manufacturing industry (with 25,000 employees) under General Franco's
regime is likely to give you a label indeed. I am convinced that this is
why Gernsheim ignored him completely in his _History...._ He sure did know
about Echague as I talked to him about Echague during a dinner in Arles,
France, just a couple of days before going to Madrid to meet Echague, ca.
late 70s.
For political reasons, Echague was and still is a controversial artist.
Different people have different reasons to be controversial artists, e.g.,
Mapplethorpe, Sally Mann and (remember him?) David Hamilton (!!!) I simply
judge people's work by their work... some of which I like, some of which I
don't. I don't care about their personal lives or history as I consider
myself unqualified and incompetent to pass judgment on such matters (I can
barely judge what is happening right under my nose, let alone anything that
happened a long time ago half way around the world). I just loved Echague's
prints and this is why I went through hell and back getting my hands on the
process that made them possible. Those rich *matte* blacks and unique
abrasion development are simply not available otherwise. The irony is that
after all of this I only used the process for a few short years and then
set it aside to concentrate my efforts on what I really enjoy i.e.,
research and publishing on historical processes and conservation. A
Stradivarius does not a Vivaldi make;-)
Something else that is also ironical and worth a footnote, if not a
paragraph: As a then budding historian, I wanted to preserve Echague's
equipment which I feared would be lost after his death. He had told me he
wanted all of his original negatives destroyed at his death... The man was
very old and there seemed little interest among his family to preserve this
one aspect of his long, productive life. The coater is a complicated
device, like a clock, about half the size of a grand piano and is an
absolute necessity for the proper use of the process. The (sometimes
tumultuous) negotiations went on for years and were the subject of many
cancellations and postponements. On the one hand, I think he wanted a young
man to take this "Stradivarius" and make it "sing" for many years to come.
The next day he was afraid of losing a part of himself, and would find some
excuse not to see me, etc. The deal was concluded in 1979 however and
although lots of water has run under the bridge since that time, it may be
another 10 or 20 years before I can talk freely about the many emotional
and personal anecdotes concerning this whole affair.
The ultimate irony perhaps, is that some 15 years after his death, his
family finally decided to create a fundation under the auspices of the
University of Navarra (North of Spain, near France; they can be found on
the Web) that will take care of his archives, i.e., personal papers,
original Fresson prints (1,000 or so, of the 3,000 world-wide) and
equipment... although the "piece de resistance" is 5,000 km in Canada,
collecting dust at this time...
Luis Nadeau
awe6ft@mi.net