Photography and education - with speaker Avelina Miquel Lara (DOMUS Seminar)

Domus Seminar Series

Photography and education: the Republican press in the Spanish Civil War

Speaker: Avelina Miquel Lara, University of the Balearic Islands. 

During the Spanish Civil War up to 500 periodicals and publications were published, 282 of which illustrated, by and for the republican soldiers under the supervision of the General War Commissariat.

Through this press it was intended to transmit the republican ideology to soldiers, as well as to maintain high morale. On the other hand, the war press was full of educational content which was intended to train the troops culturally, politically, morally and physically. 

Due to the high degree of illiterate soldiers, photography played an important role in the transmission of these messages. The set of these images contain iconographic elements and choreographies that, by themselves, tell us what messages the republican government wanted to transmit and, what image of the Republic wanted to spread. My work focuses on the analysis and interpretation of these photographs.

So far I have focused on the use of the image of the childhood in the war press as well as the dissemination of a campaign to promote physical education.

All welcome!