The First Photograph Made In Spain (1839)

The First Photograph in Spain, Memorial Plaque, Barcelona, 2021

The Missing Photograph

Unfortunately, the physical photograph itself–or, more correctly, the daguerreotype–has gone missing. It may no longer exist… or it may be hidden away in a box in someone’s attic yet to be discovered. Hopefully, the latter. (It was apparently auctioned off at the time–to ticket #56–to raise funds for some charity.)

How did it go down, then, the making of this first-ever photograph in Spain?

Well… on the 10th of November of 1839, at 11:30a.m., a small crowd had gathered in the Pla de Palau (at that time, the main plaza in Barcelona) to watch the action. Enric Monlau and Ramon Alabern had brought back from Paris a new gadget made of glass, brass, and wood, that could–apparently, amazingly, unbelievably!–permanently record the image of a scene. They aimed their strange apparatus toward the roof of a building on the Carrer del General Castaños so as to capture the Llotja building and part of the Porxos d’en Xifré, this last just finishing up its construction.

After making sure no one would walk through the scene, or hang out on the balconies within the frame (an unfortunate historic decision, in my view!), Ramon Alabern opened the lens–only to be frustrated by a carriage that moved through, spoiling the attempt.

On “take two”, Alabern successfully made the 22-minute exposure, and Spanish photographic history was made.

For the audience watching, it had to be as exciting as watching hair grow. But, dang, it was historic!

If you are alert (the world needs more lerts), down near Barceloneta, you’ll find a plaque on a wall honoring this event as you see in my picture above. (Poke around near the intersection of Pla de Palau and Passeig d’Isabel II.)

The “Fake” Photograph

It isn’t truly a fake. It is, in fact, a real photograph (daguerreotype). You’ll likely run across it if you Google this topic. This is actually the first photograph taken in Spain which has been successfully preserved over the years up to the present day. It dates back to 1848 and is a re-creation of that original, historic, and very lost 1839 image. So, it gets used to illustrate what that first image may have looked like.

Credit: Wiki Commons

The Camera

But there is good news… at least the camera was saved!

Built in Paris in 1839 by Alphonse Giroux, the original machine is on display at the Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona. 

Credit: Wiki Commons