cefvigo gallery

In 1870 arrived in Vigo an Italian called Felipe Prósperi Cortecci. Once there le left the theatre and founded a photographic gallery. In 1884 he moved to Príncipe Street. In 1889 Felipe Prósperi died. His wife became the director of the gallery, entering into partnership with Xaime Pacheco in 1907. In 1915 the gallery became exclusively Pacheco's.

Xaime de Sousa Guedes Pacheco, born in Portuguese Serra da Estrela, had been trained as a photographer in a studio his brother Xosé Pacheco owned in Ourense.

Pacheco was correspondent of Faro de Vigo, El Pueblo Gallego, ABC, Blanco y Negro, Cifra, Marca... He also collaborated with Vida Gallega and P.P.K.O., the publisher of Vigo a través de un siglo (1922) and Vigo 1927. Most of the photographs published in these two books were made by Pacheco.

Xaime Pacheco would work mostly in his studio since this was a better considered job in society than the work out in the streets. His nephew, Horacio, who had come to Vigo at the age of fifteen, was the one who worked in the street. He made photographs of the different city streets, the Modernist buildings and the political life during the Republic and the Civil War. He went to Cíes Islands, he travelled in the aeroplane "Marabú" which had been brought to Vigo by the Marquis of Quintana, to take aerial views of Vigo. After the Civil War, Xaime Pacheco jr. Took the responsibility of making most of the street work. He had worked during the war as a member of the photographic group called "El Cuerpo del Ejército de Galicia". The work of Pacheco's studio was made not only in Vigo, they also worked in other places, for example at Virxe da Franqueira festivity. Amoedo remembers nowadays that sometimes they had to start the trip the day before, as in that wedding they photographed in As Neves with snow more than one yard deep. In 1954, at the age of 76, Pacheco died. From then on the studio was run by his sons Alberto and Xaime. The latter died in 1981.

The collection of Pacheco's archive (both studio and graphic reportage) is enormous. Among the studio portraits we can find famous people like Castelao, Maside or Xosé Moure (P.P.K.O.). It is impossible to think of a family, not new in the city, who does not have a photograph by Pacheco at home.

The archive is full not only of exceptional events. We can find there everyday images, the images which actually define the evolution of society. It is reflected the industrial work of the beginning of the century as well as the industrial development of the 60s. There is a large number of plates of O Berbés and the fishing world in general.

There are also photographs showing the political life at different stages, being speciall interesting those of the Republic and the Civil War. We can know as well how the social life of the city was, the Dance at "Las Cabañas", the misses of several societies of Vigo...Special mention must be made of the sport world. There are studio portraits of the sportmen of that time and images of the different sports practiced then. We can see the football team Fortuna (founded in1907, with its ground in Bouzas), and Vigo (with its ground in Coia); these two teams would join later to form the Celta.

Some photographs show us places which do not exist anymore, thus making us reflect on their loss. All in all, it can be said that Pacheco's archive contains a century of the history of the city of Vigo.