A unique museum of its kind: vicissitudes of the photographic collection of Tomás Camarillo

Abstract

Since the 19th century, numerous initiatives have used photography to record cultural heritage. The collections resulting from those campaigns were integrated into museums among other institutions. However, given the uniqueness of these iconographic collections, other centers were also created expressly for their preservation –museums of photography as spaces that organize, exhibit and give meaning to such images–. This article will analyze Tomás Camarillo Provincial Photographic Museum in Guadalajara, which was first placed in a private home and, after years of claiming, was finally endorsed by the provincial Administration. The aesthetic value and documentary interest of snapshots favored their use as a tourist resource among other applications. In short, an attempt was made to preserve and make visible a barely valued photographic heritage, decades before this field –already recognized as an artistic discipline– became part of galleries, contemporary art museums and other institutions.