cefvigo gallery
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José María Massó García, grandson of the founder of the firm, was born in Bueu in 1899. His family, with a close relation with the canning industry, had the most important canning factory in Europe after opening the new factory in Cangas in 1941.
His love for photography was born at the beginning of the twenties, a time when he made a great number of pictures during the war in Africa. It was in this decade when he developed an enormous photographic activity. That was the time when, without any doubt, he made his most interesting pictures, particularly the ones he took in the trips the group made to the nearby beaches. They are images of a great sensitiveness and allow us to travel backwards in time and to have an idea of how the upper classes of the time enjoyed themselves. The glamour of those pictures reminds us of the wonderful images of the Belle epoque by Jacques-Henri Lartigue.
In his images it can be noticed the great concern he had for the body, something which was a characteristic of that time. They are remarkable for their formal value with marked high-angle shots, like those of the chimneys, low angle shots, and fragmentations of mechanical objects, like the headlight of his car, being clear in them an interest in emphasizing the geometrical compositions.
During his honeymoon he made photographs of the cities they visited. Some of the Eiffel Tower and the Douro docks in Port, are marked by formal compositions based on strong low angle shots, characteristic of the experimental photography of the New Vision common at that time. Others, on the contrary, are based on the usual composition of setting the figure, his wife, in the different monuments and cities, under the typical arch which closes the image.
His marriage in 1929, together with his father's death, left him in charge of the firm, a diffferent personal situation in which he did not have the same spare time as in previous years. That's why the images of youth games were substituted by others of his children, without the photographic and sociological interest the former albums had.
Many of his pictures belong to the world of fishing and ships, something he was really interested in during all his life, publishing the book Barcos en Galicia. De la prehistoria hasta hoy del Miño al Finisterre. He takes pictures of all kinds of ships, from the majestic brigantines to the simple boats for catching octopus, or the series he made in the fifties of the different types of fishing tackle, short angle pictures where the object was isolated, something that clearly shows the vision of an ethnographer.
José María Massó took photographs during all his life and, despite his age, in the seventies he still made a great number of colour slides (6x6 cm.)
INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Of a very different kind are those photographs connected with the industrial activity of the family. Photographs and, basically, plates of 9x12, 13x18 and 18x24 format, ordered to several professional photographers...
The book includes a series of these pictures, related to the old factory in Bueu, made in the twenties for the catalogue published by the firm in 1924 designed by Federico Ribas and of a great aesthetic and historical value. In these photographs it is reflected the ellaboration process, the mechanic workshops and the warehouse where the cans were packed. The pictures are carefully set, both because of the exposure time needed and the fact that their purpose was publicity, so they needed to be correctly organized.
Another series included here is the one made in the new factory in Bueu which, we think, might have been made shortly after its opening in 1926 and which present a global view of the industrial premises where the metallic structure can be fully appreciated. There are also images of the whole ellaboration process with the new machines clearly reflected in them.
The group of images about canning has, from a documentary point of view, a unique and extraordinary value since we do not know any other series about this topic which might be comparable to this. And, because of the great economic importance that the canning industry has had in our history, it is obvious that we are looking at a really important archive of our heritage.
Manuel Sendón Xosé Luis Suárez Canal