One hundred years is quite a long time. There are many more years in a year. Today is Jose Maria Artero Garcia’s birthday. He was a cultural agitator and genius whom everyone calls Artero. The Diputacion de Almeria inaugurated the centenary exhibition on November 9, 2021. Family and friends attended the commemorative act and all agreed that his professionalism and delicacy were unmatched. Angela, the granddaughter of Jose Maria Artero brought Jose Maria Artero’s figure closer to her as a person than the professional.
Angela Artero added that “He was a true genius in mastery and control of time. He had the ability to do useful activities throughout a day and have moments of leisure as only his knowledge could.” The centenary celebrations culminated with this exhibition, which featured 79 photographs from his original collection and books he edited.
Artero has not been covered in all its glory. Surprisingly, 101 year after Artero’s birth, there is still a unpublished and uncatalogued piece that exhibits artistic sensitivity and the ability to see in a different manner, in a tender and affectionate work about the gaze. These snapshots show humanity and detail from everyday life as it progressed towards modernity through the integration of the railway under the polyhedral prism Artero. They were found in a drawer.
Artero’s family keeps a few relics, as if they were a chance. This work is one of them. This set of uncatalogued, undated photographs shows the daily life at the Almeria railway station. They were traveling in wooden wagons to urban modernity. Goodbye, I love and miss you. The dream of the rattle from the wagons. The view behind the glass towards the landscape. The return home. All this is captured in one image.
Matilde Sanchez (photographer and president of Manuel Falces Foundation) confirms the extraordinary beauty of this work. The expert says Artero was a good photographer because of his clinical eye. She also had a close friendship with Artero -she was married to the late Falces, who is the father of the Imagina Project, and the Andalusian Centre of Photography. She warns that Artero was an innovator, creative and sensitive person. Matilde Sanchez highlights Matilde Sanchez’s double-value statement: “The value and initiative in publishing and literature from Almeria have a double benefit.”
He was born in Almeria in 1921. Although he did not forget his roots, he had to move to Madrid for work at times. He was known for his great passion of teaching. He was able to hold positions such as head and chief of studies at the Celia Vinas Institute. His other passion was literature and the worlds of books. Artero was the founder and technical director at Cajal, a bookstore and publishing house.
He was also the founder and first president of Almeriense Photographic Association in 1955. Almeria was a cultural and artistic gem in the 1950s thanks to Carlos Perez Siquier, Artero and a group of talented photographers. The 1958 ‘Fotografia Espanola yearbook was one of Artero’s most well-known releases in Spain and beyond. The third yearbook of Spanish artistic photography was published by the Almeriense Photographic Association. It featured daily life at the time.
His work is well-known. She still has surprises in her drawers, which once dusted, collect the memories. Photographic paradox: An oblivion contains a memory. Juan Manuel Martin, director at the Ibanez Cosentino Art Foundation in Olula Del Rio, has digitized these snapshots. Martin says that the photographs are positive, later digitized photos that have impacted him when they were given to him. “They are a real treasure,” Martin says. Artero’s work in other areas is appreciated by the director, but Artero’s role as a photographer is emphasized. The foundation director adds, “He was an exceptional photographer, even though he is more theoretical as an editor or writer.”
Mid century
These photos are not dated. The photos are undated. But aesthetics shows us an era in the middle 20th century. With only 86,000 people living in Almeria, the tourism boom, the immediate arrivals of the Seat 600, and the new sounds of The Beatles, culture was not well-recognized in Spanish homes. Artero, founder of the Cajal publishing company in Almeria, promoted new ideas and culture. The capital was able to position itself as an avant-garde and benchmark for the period when “Spain in Sepia” existed, just like it had been “in black & white”.
Francisco Arguelles (president of the Association of Publishers of Andalusia) described Artero’s editing process as follows: What he wants, when he wants, and how he wants>>. Arguelles also stated that Artero was not bothered by new technologies and that he didn’t care about the commercial aspect of publishing, but rather the illusion of getting copies out of press. Some photos also appear fresh.