An exhibition in 1944
Armando Salas Portugal was born in Monterrey in 1916 and trained as a chemical engineer. In 1944, at twenty-eight, he held his first solo exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes at the invitation of the poet Carlos Pellicer. Among the images were photographs of the Pedregal de San Ángel, and it was there that he met Luis Barragán, who at the time was beginning to conceive the residential development. The collaboration lasted until Barragán's death in 1988.
UNAM later commissioned him to document the construction of Ciudad Universitaria, and his work was sought by Mario Pani, Félix Candela, Juan Sordo Madaleno and Ricardo Legorreta, among others.
The catalogue that crossed the border
In June 1976 the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented Barragán's work in the United States for the first time and simultaneously published the first book devoted to it, with text by Emilio Ambasz, the museum's curator of design. The photographs in that volume are by Salas Portugal. The Pritzker came four years later.
Mario Pani held that Barragán's international standing was owed in large part to those images. The claim is debatable as history and precise as economics: recognition of a work travels in its representation, not in the work itself.
The image does not transfer with the property
In 1988 a series by Salas Portugal was sold to the Vitra Foundation in Switzerland. The exhibition of that series at Bellas Artes the following year took place amid disputes over the ownership of the economic rights to the photographs.
The episode illustrates something still in force. Photographs of a property are authored work with their own ownership. The Salas Portugal archive, comprising more than seventy thousand negatives, is held by the foundation that bears his name, while AHUNAM received his work on the Palacio de Minería in 1979 and acquired the Pedregal and Ciudad Universitaria series in 2006. The houses changed hands many times. The images did not.
Why it matters in a transaction
Historical photography documents authorship. A house in the Pedregal or Lomas photographed at the time by an identifiable professional holds, in that image, evidence of the original project and of its condition prior to any intervention. It is the most direct instrument for establishing integrity.
Using an archival image requires a license. Publishing a historical photograph in sales material without authorization from the holding archive is not a minor oversight. It is commercial use of another party's work.
Present-day representation is also a decision. A property of authorship photographed to generic listing standards is placed on the market as square meters. The difference is not aesthetic. It is commercial.
The reading for today
Salas Portugal did not document modern Mexican architecture. He interpreted it, and that interpretation is what the world bought. Before bringing a property of architectural value to market, it is worth asking whether a photographic record from the period exists, who holds the rights to it, and whether the representation being produced today measures up to the property.
Three checks on the photographic record
Existence of period photography of the property and its author.
Ownership of rights and licensing terms for commercial use.
The standard of present-day photography relative to the nature of the project.
Sources
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Architecture of Luis Barragán, Emilio Ambasz, 1976.
Instituto de Investigaciones sobre la Universidad y la Educación, AHUNAM, Armando Salas Portugal Collection.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morada de lava. Las colecciones fotográficas del Pedregal de San Ángel y la Ciudad Universitaria, 2006.
Fundación Armando Salas Portugal.
Rocca Archive
Architecture and Design
Next Article
