O proxecto galego de Ruth Matilda Anderson José Luis Cabo

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1 O proxecto galego de Ruth Matilda Anderson José Luis Cabo Galicia non foi punto de destino habitual, nin sequera parada obrigada, dentro da febre viaxeira que invadiu a Península desde o primeiro tercio do século dezanove. Atraídos fundamentalmente polo halo romántico de Andalucía e, en menor medida, polas cidades de Madrid e Toledo, os viaxeiros europeos apartáronse conscentemente dos pobos do norte para transitar incansablemente polos soleados camiños do sur na percura da esencia romántica do español. Como excepcións destacables desta corrente maioritaria, viaxeiros británicos como Richard Ford ou George Borow segueron a ruta de Galicia nas súas expedicións e así quedou reflectido nos seus escritos posteriores. A aparición dos fotógrafos viaxeiros confirmou a tendencia xeral, quedando Galicia desta forma practicamente descoñecida a nivel fotográfico no contexto ibérico. Os traballos de Thurston Thompson en Santiago de Compostela en 1866 son as primeiras mostras dun destes fotógrafos coñecidas en Galicia, aínda que coa salvedade de ser un encargo profesional do museo londinense South Kensington -con vistas a documentar os labores do valeirado do Pórtico da Gloria na catedral compostelana 1 - e non consecuencia do que podemos entender como a expedición dun viaxeiro en sentido estricto. Os fotógrafos actuantes en Galicia durante as décadas seguintes continuaron baixo as premisas da tendencia inaugurada por Thurston Thompson, recollendo de xeito sistemático tanto a riqueza do patrimonio arquitectónico, artístico ou paisaxístico como o progreso na dotación de infraestructuras, principalmente ferroviarias e portuarias. Son os casos de Laurent, cos seus álbumes da liña de ferrocarril Zamora-Coruña en 1885, Pelayo Mas, coa súa exhaustiva xira de 1919, ou as expedicións de Otto Wunderlich xa nos anos vinte. Paralelamente, os fotógrafos galegos e os foráneos asentados profesionalmente en Galicia tamén sacaron as cámaras dos seus estudios para reflectir -e comercializar- os monumentos e paisaxes máis representativos de Galicia. Un exemplo temperán témolo en Andrés Cisneros e o seu álbum compostelán de 1858, ó que seguiron produccións ó longo do dezanove de Palmeiro, Mandía, Ramón Buch, Zagala, Prósperi, Chicharro e, xa no vinte, de Ferrer e Ksado 2. É nos primeiros anos deste século cando parece acrecentarse o interese e, consecuentemente, a bibliografía viaxeira sobre o país galego. Entre 1909 e 1920 apareceron publicacións como Galicia. The Switzerland of Spain, de Annette Meakin; Spanish Galicia, de Audrey Bell, e A corner of Spain, de Walter Wood. Dentro desta tendencia e tendo como antecedente a viaxe do seu fundador a Galicia en 1892 aparece en xogo The Hispanic Society of America. Esta institución foi creada en 1904 por Archer M. Huntington co obxecto de divulgar a cultura española, entendida esta en toda a súa extensión: a de tódolos pobos hispánicos peninsulares e americanos. Na súa sede de Nova York, un complexo de edificios de estilo neoclásico situado nun elegante enclave do barrio de Harlem, alberga hoxe en día os fondos e as coleccións atesourados durante décadas polo propio Huntington, quen, desde un principio, deseñou un proxecto museográfico dando entrada non só ás artes maiores (asinadas por nomes como El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Sorolla ou Benlliure) senón a todo o elenco de traballos artísticos utilitaristas, como cerraxería, mobiliario, vidrio, cerámica, tecidos, xoiería, etc., así como a unha biblioteca con 250 incunables e exemplares editados con anterioridade a As seccións

2 de mapas, manuscritos, gravados e fotografías completan o variado e rico patrimonio artístico e documental desta fundación privada. 3 Archer Milton Huntington (Nova York, 1870-Redding, Connecticut, 1955) foi educado como único herdeiro do imperio empresarial e financieiro familiar 4, pero a súa avidez humanista por coñecer a fondo as culturas europeas -en especial a española a partir dunha viaxe realizada a México en 1889 e a lectura de The Bible in Spain de George Borow- provocou un distanciamento consentido dos designios paternos e o inicio dunha formación autodidacta en diversas disciplinas 5. Nun principio, Huntington centrouse fundamentalmente nos estudios sobre a Idade Media, aprendendo a lingua árabe e o español antigo para profundizar na historia de España. A súa desexada e preparada viaxe á Península concretouse en 1892 e as súas reflexións -recollidas na edición A Note-Book in Northern Spain 6 - escaparon, desde un principio, da imaxe romántica promovida, e tamén buscada, polos viaxeiros en décadas anteriores. Huntington experimentou cara ós temas españois un enorme afecto e respeto que superou a perspectiva exclusivamente intelectual para cargarse de emoción e compenetración coas súas paisaxes, coas súas xentes e coa súa cultura. O seu primeiro, e único, itinerario por Galicia reduciuse a unha visita a A Coruña, onde arribou en barco, e a Santiago, seguindo a viaxe cara ó interior peninsular desde esa primeria cidade pola ruta de Astorga. A pesar desta curta estancia non esqueceu o país galego -terra, escribiu, de chuvia e néboa, onde o ambiente é exquisito e os hoteis coñecidos polo malos que son, habitada por a máis ruda raza e a máis pobre, os restos dun dos Apóstoles e o peor dos gobernos - e, consolidada a súa formidable institución hispanista en Nova York, encargou a unha xove fotógrafa do seu equipo, Ruth Matilda Anderson, un estudio sobre Galicia para incluír nunha serie de monografías financiadas e editadas pola propia Hispanic Society. Archer M. Huntington sería honrado pola cidade de A Coruña en 1958 designando co seu nome unha rúa do barrio de Laboñou. 7 Ruth Matilda Anderson (Cottonwood State Farm, Nebraska, 1893-Nova York, 1983) estivo en contacto desde a súa primeira nenez co particular ambiente da fotografía. O seu pai, Alfred Anderson, un fotógrafo de ascendencia norueguesa, rexentaba un estudio fotográfico en Kearney, unha pequena vila do estado de Nebraska, no cal colaboraban, en maior ou menor medida, tanto as súas fillas como a súa muller Alma Matilda Wickstrom. Ruth, despois de diplomarse como mestre na escola estatal de Nebraska en 1915, sentiu a vocación fotográfica con tal intensidade que en 1918 se trasladou ata Nova York para matricularse nos custosos cursos de inverno da prestixiosa Clarence H. White School of Photography, situada nun elegante edificio do baixo Manhattan, coñecido como a Casa Washington Irving. Clarence H. White (West Carlisle, Ohio, 1871-Cidade de México, 1925) foi membro fundador en 1902 da Photo-Secession, con Alfred Stieglitz ( ) e Edward Steichen ( ) entre outros, grupo preconizador do recoñecemento da fotografía como un medio propio de expresión individual. A Photo- Secession apoiábase nos parámetros da estética pictorialista -de grande pulo en Estados Unidos nos anos de entreséculos-, coa intención de elevar a fotografía ó nivel acadado pola pintura dentro do sistema das belas artes. Os fotógrafos pictorialistas eran uns apaixoados dos chamados procesos nobles que permitían a intervención manual durante o positivado, manipulando a imaxe para afastala do seu carácter realista tanto a través de pinceis, brochas e rascadores como coa materia do soporte ó usar papeis especiais. A Photo- Secession editaba a revista Camera Work ( ) e abriu en 1905 a súa propia sala de exposicións -a chamada Galería 291- onde se mostraron obras de fotógrafos, escultores e pintores americanos e de artistas,

3 moitos por primeira vez en Estados Unidos, da vangarda europea (Matisse, Brancusi, Picasso, Picabia, Braque). A fundación da Photo-Secession marcou na fotografía o punto de partida da súa propia consciencia como arte nos Estados Unidos. Neste contexto de grande pulsión artística, Clarence H. White decidiu inaugurar a súa escola de fotografía en 1914, converténdoa no único centro de tódolos Estados Unidos en desenvolver a ensinanza da fotografía como arte 8. A fin do método de White -apoiándose en profesores da talla de Paul L. Anderson e Max Weber- era integrar profesionalmente ós alumnos no mundo da edición, das revistas ilustradas e da publicidade, insistindose moito, por tanto, nos plans de estudios nos temas de deseño e publicidade e na linguaxe visual da vangarda. A maior parte dos fotógrafos que triunfaron comercialmente nos anos seguintes -en revistas como Vogue e Vanity Fair ou asinando substanciosos contratos coas grandes axencias de publicidade- foron alumnos da escola de White: Anton Bruehl, Paul Outerbrigde Jr., Margaret Bourke-White, Ralph Steiner, etc. Na escola o número de mulleres matriculadas superaba ó de homes, consecuencia tanto da alta valoración que White tiña da valía feminina en fotografía, como da tendencia xeral que significou a irrupción da muller americana no mundo laboral nunha cuantía sen precedentes ata entón, adoptando o estilo de vida da nova muller independente. Ruth M. Anderson chegou á escola de White nun dos seus mellores momentos, recén estreadas as aulas e os laboratorios da Casa Washington Irving e no seu punto académico máis álxido. Recibiu clases durante o curso de Clarence H. White y de Paul Anderson 9, entre outros, e tomou contacto con artistas da talla de Max Weber e Edward Steichen. Pola documentación disponible parece que Ruth non destacou pola súa participación en exposicións e outras actividades fotográficas de renome, nin durante a súa etapa na escola, nin nos anos inmediatamente posteriores despois de diplomarse en Sen embargo, en 1921 apareceu en escena a irresistible personalidade de Archer M. Huntington, o personaxe que ía ser fundamental na súa futura traxectoria profesional. Huntington cría firmemente -como Clarence H. Whitena valía do traballo das mulleres tanto en fotografía como noutros campos da cultura e, sen dubidalo, contratou como fotógrafas para a Hispanic Society a tres exalumnas da escola: Alice Atkinson, Frances Spalding e Ruth M. Anderson. Na súa etapa inicial na Hispanic Society, Ruth desempeñou, entre 1922 e 1924, as responsabilidades do departamento de fotografía e viaxou por primeira vez a España en 1923 con outros dous integrantes do equipo do museo, Allyn e Pursche, ampliando a expedición a Xibraltar, Marrocos e Francia, pero sen achegarse a Galicia. A súa consideración no museo foi acrecentándose e no 1924 xa foi nomeada investigadora, iniciando a consolidación do campo que sería a súa especialización definitiva: a historia do traxe en España. O interese por incrementar e sistematizar a información sobre os costumes e as xentes de Galicia 10 levaron á dirección da Hispanic Society a plantexar un traballo específico, integrado dentro da colección Peninsular Series da súa liña editorial. O encargo recaeu en Ruth M. Anderson que no mes de agosto de 1924 desembarcou coa súa equipaxe repleta de cámaras e material fotográfico no porto de Vigo. Acompañáballe o seu pai, o veterano fotógrafo Alfred Anderson, en calidade de axudante, pero, en certo senso, tamén apadrinándoa ante as vicisitudes incertas dun ambicioso proxecto nun país estranxeiro 11.

4 A paisaxe urbana do ensanche vigués resultou un escenario demasiado recoñecible -cos seus edificios de fachadas en pedra e cúpulas ostentosas, coas súas rúas rectas e de trazado regular- ó Manhattan recén abandonado. O interese da viaxe estaba no extremo contrario, no rostro auténtico, fermoso ou non, do país galego. En tódolos seus itinerarios, Ruth buscou sempre un país incontaminado, seguindo en certa forma un criterio folclorista e impresionista 12, escapando coa súa cámara dos escenarios comúns ó resto das cidades occidentais. A diferencia, é dicir, a personalidade, do pobo galego atopouna nas xentes do campo e do mar e nos oficios urbáns artesanais ou de menor categoría, moi na liña dos fotógrafos contemporáneos norteamericanos e coincidinte co obxectivo definido pola Hispanic Society: a plasmación do que había de xenuíno e verdadeiro no pobo e nas terras de Galicia. As referencias fotográficas de Ruth M. Anderson non escapaban ó pulo común das preocupacións da última fotografía norteamericana. Ruth viviu, desde os tempos do seu paso pola escola de White ata os primeiros anos na Hispanic Society, a mutación desde o pictorialismo impresionista do seu mestre White e a Photo Secession á fotografía directa impulsada por unha nova xeración, á que ela pertencía por idade e por inquietudes. A partir de 1916, coa exposición de Paul Strand na Galería 291 e o apoio de Alfred Stieglitz, foise consolidando unha corrente onde unha fotografía practicamente documental, expresión directa do presente e de austera economía gráfica, característica da vangarda estadounidense, relegaría en poucos anos ós foto-seccionistas ó pasado. Seguindo o camiño contrario, Edward Steichen lanzouse, ante o escándalo dos seus antigos compañeiros, á fotografía estrictamente comercial, adaptando os temas e elementos do pictorialismo ós imperativos da nova sociedade de consumo e asinando elevados contratos coas publicacións de Condé Nast e coa importante axencia de publicidade J. Walter Thompson. A actitude de Steichen veu a reafirmar as necesidades dos cambios na fotografía postuladas polos autores máis novos. Esta xeración co seu estilo documental directo, aínda que sen actitude periodística, quería rachar coa distinguida suficiencia e a temática elitista da fotografía pictorialista e reaccionar á vez contra as propostas comerciais protagonizadas por Steichen. A idea central era que unha fotografía podía ser considerada como obra de arte e ter ó mesmo tempo a apariencia dunha fotografía convencional. A distinción como arte viría marcada exclusivamente pola intelixencia e orixinalidade da percepción do autor. Producíuse entón un movemento de rechazo ante os excesos da sofisticación pictorialista e o seu compromiso posterior coas apariencias consumistas. Coa crise de 1929 apareceu xa consolidada a necesidade dunha reevaluación crítica do pasado e algúns críticos literarios e sociólogos exploraron, descontando a herdanza puritana, os campos esquecidos do folklore americano, a arte popular, a historia rexional buscando modelos de recambio 13. Walker Evans, destacado participante da nova xeración, sinalaría que a fotografía equivocárase de camiño neste mundo de técnica arrogante e de inexistencia espiritual [...] que non ten nada que ver coa persoa humana. 14 Varias fotógrafas contemporáneas a Ruth M. Anderson, tamén exalumnas da escola de White, desenvolveron proxectos máis ou menos coincidintes co levado a cabo en Galicia: Laura Gilpin ( ), cos indios navaxos; Clara Sipprell, coa vida nas rúas en Iugoslavia e México; e Doris Ulman ( ), documentando a vida rural nos Montes Apalaches e nas comunidades negras de Carolina do Sur. Este camiño cara ás raigames auténticas dos pobos, aínda que sen buscar nin pretender unha testemuña social políticamente comprometida, foi o trazado por Ruth M. Anderson de tal forma que configura unha visión especial de Galicia [...] coa globalidade de quen penetra de forma directa na alma dun pobo. 15

5 Ruth apoiouse nunha perfecta planificación, arroupada por toda unha rede de contactos previamente establecida, e no coñecemento da historia e da realidade de Galicia, gracias á lectura de obras de Pérez Costanti, Casto Sampedro, Murguía, Carré e, significativamente, Rosalía de Castro 16. O seu alto nivel de estudios das artes plásticas que ela converte nunha extremada capacidade para a composición 17 parece unha consecuencia do período formativo na escola de White. Contrastaba a formación fotográfica e a sistemática planificación do proxecto de Ruth Anderson co descoñecemento na fotografía galega das correntes estéticas máis novedosas. Illados nos seus vellos estudios os máis veteranos ou ignorantes dos novos postulados os máis xoves, os fotógrafos galegos non souberon encontrar a independencia e a capacidade necesaria para distanciarse do rancio profesionalismo imperante. Ksado, un dos autores máis activos durante os anos vinte, coincidinte xeracionalmente con Ruth Anderson e con infraestructura e solvencia económica suficientes, foi incapaz de establecer unha nova visión que o afastase dos fotógrafos galegos do século XIX e non converter o seu labor nunha mera reiteración do ofrecido a principios de século por Pedro Ferrer e outros no seu Portfolio Galicia. 18 É totalmente significativo da impotencia da fotografía galega comprobar como foi superada polos visitantes estranxeiros que, nun curto espacio de tempo, deixaban en evidencia ós locais no seu propio terreo. Pese á ebulición fotográfica do primeiro tercio de século, a sociedade galega non asimilou os máis recentes movementos estéticos, manténdose sempre fóra das vangardas artísticas en eclosión por eses anos en Europa. Gracias ás publicacións especializadas, algúns fotógrafos estiveron ó tanto destas ideas, pero sen lograr xerar, nin sequera, actuacións miméticas. Habería que esperar ata a aparición da obra de José Suárez nos anos trinta para ver en Galicia propostas e postulados renovadores que trataban de conciliar a cultura tradicional coas linguaxes plásticas contemporáneas. O ensaio galego de Ruth M. Anderson é todo un modelo do bo facer fotográfico, tanto polas dificultades a superar (idiomáticas, desprazamentos, procesado dos negativos) como pola gran laboura de documentación e planificación previa. A realización das fotografías tropezaba con problemas técnicos como a falta de luz nos interiores, sobre todo nas igrexas, solventados cun pequeno flash para os detalles ou longas exposicións para os planos xerais. A incerteza polo resultado das tomas de interiores viuse incrementada ó comprobar a excelente terminación dunhas fotografías mercadas ó Arxiu Mas de Barcelona. Alfred Anderson, ó comentar nos seus diarios a inseguridade da súa filla Ruth ante estas fotografías, danos unha das claves fundamentais que nos leva a valorar aínda máis o seu traballo: Ruth tiña moi pouca información dos problemas concretos que ía a atopar en Galicia e, ata entón, a súa experiencia profesional reducíase a traballos de estudio e reproduccións na Hispanic Society. Durante os meses da estancia en Galicia Ruth revelaba os negativos nun laboratorio de campaña no propio cuarto do hotel ou da pousada de turno. Para as fotografías en cor, sempre de traxes rexionais e realizadas a plena luz do sol dada a baixa sensibilidade das emulsións, enviaban as placas a procesar ós Estados Unidos. Os negativos en branco e negro, unha vez revelados e clasificados, tamén eran expedidos por lotes á Hispanic Society. Nestes envíos non faltaban series de fotografías de autores galegos -Saravia, Pacheco, Zagala, Ksado, Ferrer- mercadas coa intención de enriquecer o arquivo gráfico do museo. As fotografías de Ruth eran minuciosamente anotadas con toda clase de detalles, desde os puramente técnicos (marca e tipo de negativo, diafragma, tempo de exposición, revelador), ata a localización, suxeito, data, hora e condicións atmosféricas. Os elementos fundamentais de cada toma eran descriptos coidadosamente. Por exemplo, para unha das súas primeiras fotografías en

6 Galicia, tomada en Vigo en agosto de 1924, escribiu: A side view of the gaitero. The bag of the gaita is of black velvet marked with initials in red cross stitch. Cando retrata en Betanzos ó propietario do Hotel Comercio e a súa familia sentados para comer anotou desde a colocación correcta do pano na mesa ata o menú servido (caldo) e o papel fundamental dos paos de dentes. Nunha fotografía en Corcubión do xogo da chave transcribiu mesmo parte das regras: Cuando se toca a la cruz, cuenta 8. La peja (sic) que está más cerca a la raya vale un tanto; la que toque a la raya en la tierra vale dos tantos. 19 En agosto de 1925 Ruth e o seu pai remataron o seu periplo galego -que se extendera ata Asturias, León e, por uns días, a Madrid- embarcando cara a Nova York despois de realizar case fotografías orixinais e adquirir outras ós fotógrafos galegos máis destacados. En decembro dese mesmo ano, Ruth voltou a Galicia a completar o seu ensaio, acompañada esta vez por Frances Spalding ( ), compañeira nas labouras fotográficas na Hispanic Society. Percorreu de novo toda Galicia nun Ford de segunda man reformado para transportar con comodidade o equipo fotográfico. En maio de 1926 retornou ós Estados Unidos con novas fotografías do seu querido proxecto galego. A obra de Ruth M. Anderson non vería a luz ata 1939, publicada en forma de libro pola Hispanic Society, baixo o título de Gallegan Provinces of Spain: Pontevedra and La Coruña. Con preto de 700 fotografías e un documentado e atractivo texto, recolle exclusivamente as viaxes realizadas por estas dúas provincias, quedando fóra as de Ourense e Lugo, presentes, sen embargo, tanto nos seus itinerarios como no arquivo fotográfico da Hispanic Society. O fundamental ensaio de Ruth M. Anderson non tivo na práctica trascendencia algunha en Galicia, tanto pola coincidencia da súa data de publicación co último ano da Guerra Civil como polo forzado illamento cultural posterior. Só algúns eruditos, como Luis Seoane 20, deron mostras públicas, anos despois, de coñecer o traballo de Ruth M. Anderson. Para a fotografía galega nunca existiu. Perdeuse así a posibilidade de establecer un modelo de comportamento que tería aforrado non poucos esforzos baldíos nas décadas posteriores. Despois das viaxes galegas, Ruth M. Anderson foi apartándose paulatinamente da fotografía para especializarse na historia do traxe en España. Entre 1927 e 1928 viaxou por Extremadura, acompañada de novo por Frances Spalding, con fins similares ós de Galicia, pero xa moi centrada no estudio do traxe popular, materializados en 1951 coa publicación do seu libro Spanish Costume: Extremadura. A compilación das súas investigacións históricas sobre o traxe español, manual de consulta obrigado nesta materia, editouse en 1979, catro anos antes do seu falecemento, co título de Hispanic Costume As máis de seismil fotografías conformadoras do extraordinario Fondo Anderson da Hispanic Society supoñen un dos conxuntos fotográficos máis notables realizados nunca sobre Galicia. Desde o punto de vista documental, destaca especialmente a diversidade de temas e localizacións que compoñen o maior cadro fotográfico coñecido sobre o país galego. O seu sorpredente entusiasmo en concretar as esencias das terras e as xentes de Galicia, as súas señas de identidade, convérteno en punto de referencia plástica indispensable e, hoxe en día, nunha contribución decisiva para a recuperación da nosa memoria histórica.

7 Notas 1. Os traballos de Thurston Thompson en Santiago de Compostela están minuciosamente estudiados por Lee Fontanella en Charles Thurston Thompson e o proxecto fotográfico ibérico, Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe-Xunta de Galicia, Xosé Enrique Acuña; Fotografía, Gran Enciclopedia Gallega, t. XXXII. 3. The Hispanic Society of America Handbook. Museum and Library collections, New York, The Hispanic Society of America, O seu pai, Collis P. Huntington, foi o fundador da compañía de ferrocarrís Central Pacific Railroad, propietario duns grandes estaleiros en Newport e posuidor dunha das primeiras fortunas dos Estados Unidos. 5. As claves da traxectoria de Archer M. Huntington están expostas en Gilman Proske, Beatrice; Archer Milton Huntington, traducción de María Brey Mariño, New York, The Hispanic Society of America, Para a relación de Huntington con Galicia poden consultarse os artigos de Juan Arias Archer M. Huntington, talento y cultura en Galicia (La Voz de Galicia, 9 de abril de 1994) e Archer Milton Huntington, talento y cultura de un hispanista (El Ideal Gallego, 29 de xuño de 1997). 6. Huntington, Archer Milton; A Note-Book in Northern Spain, New York-London, G.P. Putnam s Sons, Información facilitada por María de la O Suárez, directora do Arquivo Histórico Municipal da Coruña. 8. Para unha consulta máis ampla sobre a escola de fotografía de White e o seu contexto histórico véxase Yochelson, Bonnie e Erwin, Kathleen A.; Pictorialism into Modernism. The Clarence H. White School of Photography, New York, Rizzoli, Paul Anderson ( ), sen ningunha relación de parentesco con Ruth M. Anderson. 10. O interese da Hispanic Society por Galicia non era novo. A parte da citada viaxe do seu fundador en 1892, esta institución patrocinou en 1920 a edición en tres volumes da prestixiosa obra de Georgiana Goddard Kind The Way of Saint James. 11. Alfred Anderson escribiu un diario durante a súa estancia en Galicia -resumido nos seus episodios máis significativos nun apéndice ó final deste libro-, publicado pola súa filla Elizabeth Uldall baixo o título Extracts from father s diaries: Alfred Anderson in Spain with his daughter Ruth, July, 1924-July, 1925 (Edinburgh, 1986). 12. Luca de Tena, Gustavo; Safari impresionista ao arrabaldo do norte, A Nosa Terra, n. 351, 21 de xullo de Philips, Christopher; Los Estados Unidos: La sociedad americana, en Lemagny, Jean-Claude e Rouillé, André (dir.); Historia de la fotografía, Barcelona, Alcor, 1988, p Íbidem. 15. Acuña, Xosé Enrique; Una visión de Galicia, El País, Artes, 10 de setembro de Ruth M. Anderson coñecía perfectamente o obra poética de Rosalía de Castro. A lectura da poetisa padronesa axudaríalle a dar unha visión fotográfica especial de Galicia. En 1938 a Hispanic Society editou as traduccións de Ruth M. Anderson de poetas españois, entre eles, Rosalía e Paio Gómez Chariño.

8 17. Acuña, Xosé Enrique; Impacto e imaxe da Galiza através das fotografías de Ruth Matilda Anderson, A Nosa Terra, n. 351, 21 de xullo de Xosé Enrique Acuña é unha referencia indispensable e case única para entender tanto o significado do ensaio de Ruth M. Anderson como a súa contextualización no panorama histórico da fotografía en Galicia. 18. Íbidem. 19. En castelán, no rexistro da fotografía (Ficha n , Arquivo Fotográfico, The Hispanic Society of América). 20. Luis Seoane publicou en 1955 un artigo, A pequena leiteira, sobre unha fotografía de Ruth M. Anderson do mesmo título, en Galicia Emigrante (Bos Aires, ano II, n. 8, xaneiro de 1955).

9 Ruth Matilda Anderson José Luis Cabo Galicia was not the usual destination, not even a compulsory stop, when the travelling fever invaded Spain in the first third of the nineteen century. European travellers, drawn mainly by Andalusia romantic halo and also by cities like Madrid and Toledo, consciously drifted apart from the towns in the north of Spain to go along the sunny paths of the south in search of the romantic Spanish essence. Some distinguished exceptions were English travellers like Richard Ford or George Borrow who followed the way of Galicia in their expeditions and so it remained reflected in their later writings. When foreign photographers came to Spain the general trend was proved: Galicia remained almost unknown at a photographic level in the Spanish context. Thurston Thompson's works in Santiago de Compostela in 1866 are the first photographic tokens of a foreigner documented in Galicia, even though it was a professional assignment of the London South Kensington Museum -to take documentary evidence of the casting of Pórtico da Gloria in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela 1 - and not the result of a traveller's expedition. During the following decades photographers followed the trend started by Thurston Thompson, taking systematically either the richness of the architectural, art or scenic heritage or the new rail and harbour infraestructures. These are the cases of Laurent, with his albums about the Zamora-Coruña railway in 1885, Pelayo Mas, with his comprehensive tour in 1919, or Otto Wunderlich's expeditions in 1920s. At the same time, Galician photographers and the foreign ones who worked here also took their cameras from their studios in order to reflect -and market- the most representative monuments and sceneries in Galicia. Andrés Cisneros is an early example with his album of Santiago de Compostela in After this we can find in the nineteen century works by Palmeiro, Mandía, Ramón Buch, Zagala, Prósperi, Chicharro and, in the twenty century, by Ferrer and Ksado 2. In the early years of the twenty century there seems to increase the interest and, consistently, the traveller bibliography about Galicia. Between 1909 and 1920 we find some publications like Galicia. The Switzerland of Spain, by Annette Meakin; Spanish Galicia, by Audrey Bell, and A corner of Spain, by Walter Wood. As a consequence of this trend and bearing in mind the founder's journey to Galicia, in 1892 The Hispanic Society of America comes out. This institution was created in 1904 by Archer M. Huntington with the aim of popularizing the Spanish culture, both Spanish and American culture. Today at the central office in New York, a complex of buildings in the neoclassical style placed in a smart point in Harlem, we can find the funds and collections kept during decades by the same Huntington, who, from the very begining, designed a museum scheme which admited not only the main arts (names like El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Sorolla or Benlliure) but also all kind of utilitarian artistic works like locksmith's, furniture, glass, pottery, textiles, jewellery, etc., and also a library with 250 incunables and 15,000 copies published before The artistic and documentary heritage of this private foundation also takes in maps, prints, manuscripts and photographs. 3 Archer Milton Huntington (New York, 1870-Redding, Connecticut, 1955) was brought up as the only inheritor of the business and familiar empire 4, but his humanistic desire to know deeply the European cultures -specially the Spanish after a journey to Mexico in 1889 and after reading The Bible in Spain by

10 George Borrow- made him drift apart from his father's plans and he became a self-taught person on different subjects 5. At the begining, Huntington focused mainly on Middle Age studies, and he learnt Arabic and Old Castilian languages to go deeply into Spanish History. His so much desired and arranged journey to Spain became a reality in 1892 and his thoughts -stated in A Note-Book in Northern Spain 6 publication- had nothing to do with the romantic image given by travellers some decades before. Huntington felt a great respect and attachment to Spanish subjects, not only in an intellectual sense but he also was filled with excitement and natural sympathy with scenery, people and culture. The first time he visited Galicia he stayed in A Coruña, where he arrived by ship, and in Santiago. After that, he followed the journey from that first town on the Astorga way. Despite this short visit he did not forget Galicia -he wrote, rainy and foggy country, where the atmosphere is exquisite and the hotels are known to be very bad, inhabited by the most uncultured and poorest race, the remains of one of the Apostles and the worst government - once he consolidated his splendid hispanist institution in New York, he charged a young photographer of his team, Ruth Matilda Anderson, a survey of Galicia in order to be included in a series of monographs of journeys about Spanish subjects financed and published by the same Hispanic Society. Archer M. Huntington would be honoured by A Coruña town in 1958 and a street in Labañou suburb was given his name 7. Ruth Matilda Anderson (Cottonwood State Farm, Nebraska, 1893-New York, 1983) was in touch with photography since her early childhood. Her father, Alfred Anderson, a Norwegian photographer, was the owner of a photography studio in Kearney, a small town in Nebraska, where her daughters and her wife Alma Matilda Wickstrom helped him. Ruth, after graduating at Nebraska Public College in 1915, felt the photographic vocation so deeply that in 1918 she moved to New York so as to sign on for the expensive winter courses at the famous Clarence H. White School of Photography, placed in a smart building in Manhattan, known as Washington Irving House. Clarence H. White (West Carlisle, Ohio, 1871-Mexico City, 1925) was a founder member in 1902 of Photo-Secession, with Alfred Stieglitz ( ) and Edward Steichen ( ) among other people, visualizing group of the acknowledgment of photography as a way of individual expression. Photo- Secession leant back on the parametres of pictorial aesthetics -very famous in EEUU during the last years of the 19th century and the begining of 20th-, with the aim of raising photography up to the same level reached by painting inside the system of Fine Arts. Pictorial photographers were very fond of the so called noble process which allowed handy work during the positive processing, handing the image in order to separate it from its realistic nature either by means of brushes, large paintbrushes, scrapers or the support material when using special papers. Photo-Secession published the magazine Camera Work ( ) and in 1905 opened its own exhibition room -Gallery 291- where there showed the works of American photographers, sculptors, painters and artists, of vanguard in Europe at that time but for many of them it was the first time they showed in EEUU (Matisse, Brancusi, Picasso, Picabia, Braque). Photo-Secession foundation meant the starting point to consider photography as an art in EEUU. In this context of great artistic power, Clarence H. White decided to create his own photography school in 1914, becoming the only centre in all EEUU teaching photography as an art 8. The aim of White's method - leaning back on professors like Paul L. Anderson and Max Weber- was of integrating students into the publishing world, into picture magazines and advertising professionally, that is why he focused so much on

11 study schemes, on design and advertising subjects and on the visual language at that time. Most photographers who were successful some years after -in magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair or those who signed contracts for a lot of money with important advertising agencies- studied at White's school: Anton Bruehl, Paul Outerbridge Jr., Margaret Bourke-White, Ralph Steiner, etc. The number of women enrolled at White's school was higher than men's. This was the result not only of the high consideration that White had about women at photography but also of the general trend meant by the invasion of American women into the labour world in such a way never seen before, and adopting the way of living of the independent new woman. Ruth M. Anderson arrived at White's school at a good time, when the classrooms and the laboratories of Washington Irving House had just been used for the first time and also at the highest academic level. Clarence H. White and Paul Anderson 9 were her teachers from 1918 to 1919 and she got into contact with artists like Max Weber and Edward Steichen. As far as the documentation allows us to know, it seems that Ruth did not point out taking part in exhibitions and other photographic activities, neither during her school years nor during her later years after graduating in However, in 1921 Archer M. Huntington came into scene, the person who would become essential in Ruth's future professional career. Huntington trusted completely -just like Clarence H. White- women's valuable work not only as photographers but also in other cultural fields and, of course, he engaged three old students as photographers for The Hispanic Society: Alice Atkinson, Frances Spalding and Ruth M. Anderson. At the begining at The Hispanic Society, Ruth was assigned to take charge of the photography department from 1922 to She first travelled to Spain in 1923 with two other members of the museum staff, Allyn and Pursche, visiting also Gibraltar, Marocco and France but not Galicia. Her reputation at The Hispanic Society improved and in 1924 she was named researcher, consolidating her special field of study: the history of the costume in Spain. The interest in increasing the information about Spanish costume and people led The Hispanic Society to propose a monograph about Galicia 10, to be included in Peninsular Series collection. The assignment was for Ruth M. Anderson, who in August, 1924 arrived at Vigo with her bagage full of cameras and photographic material. Her father, the old Alfred Anderson, was coming with her as an assistant but, in some way, he was also protecting her from uncertain vicissitudes of an ambitious project in a foreign country 11. The urban scenery of Vigo -with its stone front buildings and rich domes, and its straight and regular streets- made her think of Manhattan, the city she had just left. The interest of the journey lay in the opposite side, in the real, beautiful or not, face of Galicia. Ruth always tried to find an unpolluted country, following a folklore and impressionist criteria 12, running away from ordinary sceneries. She found the difference between Galicia and other countries when she met country and sea people and also craft workers, in the same line of contemporary American photographers and in accordance with the objective defined by The Hispanic Society: giving shape to what was genuine and true in Galicia. Ruth M. Anderson's references were in the same line of the last trends of American photography. From her school times at White's to her first years at The Hispanic Society, Ruth witnessed the change from the impressionist pictorialism of White and Photo-Secession to straight photography promoted by a new generation she belonged to because of age and worries. From 1916, with Paul Strand's exhibition at Gallery

12 291 and Alfred Stieglitz's support, a trend based on documentary photography began to consolidate, expression of that time and of severe pictorial economy, typical of the American vanguard and that would banish the seccionist photographers from people's minds. On the opposite side, Edward Steichen undertook purely business photography, adapting pictorial subjects and elements to the demands of the new consumer society and signed contracts of big sums of money with Condé Nast's publications and with the important advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. Steichen's attitude stated the urgency to make changes at photography. The new generation with its straightforward and documentary style, but lacking a journalistic attitude, wanted to break the distinguished adequacy and elitist subjects of pictorial photography and also to react against Steichen's business proposals. The idea was that a photograph could be thought as a work of art and at the same time it could also look like a conventional photograph. The artistic aspect would be given by the author's intelligence and originality. Then there was a movement rejecting the excess of pictorial sofistication. With 1929 crisis the necessity of a critical assessment of the past got stated and literary critics and sociologists went into the fields of American folklore, popular art and regional history looking for spare patterns 13. Walker Evans, remarkable member of the new generation, would point out that photography will take the wrong way in this world of haughty technique and lack of spirituality [...] that has nothing to do with the human being. 14 Several women photographers, who had also studied at White's just like Ruth M. Anderson, carried out some projects similar to the ones made in Galicia: Laura Gilpin ( ), with American indians; Clara Sipprell, reporting the life in Yugoslavia and Mexico streets; and Doris Ulman ( ), reporting the country life in Appalachians and in the black community of South Carolina. This search for people's real roots was the one followed by Ruth M. Anderson in Galicia, in such a way that she gives a special view of Galicia as a whole [...] as if she was entering straightforward people's soul. 15 Ruth leant back on a perfect planning, helped by many previous contacts, and on the knowledge of Galicia history and reality, as she had read books by Pérez Costanti, Casto Sampedro, Murguía, Carré and Rosalía de Castro 16. Her high level at plastic arts that she turns into an extreme ability for composition 17 seems to be a consequence of her study years at White's school. The photographic knowledge and sistematic planning of Ruth Anderson's project contrasted with Galician photographers' lack of information about new aesthetic trends. Isolated in their old studios or unaware of the new trends, Galician photographers did not know how to find independence and the necessary ability to separate themselves from the ruling ancient professionalism. Ksado, one of the most lively photographers during the twenties, belonged to the same generation of Ruth Anderson and had enough infraestructure and economic power, however, was not able to set a new view so that it would drift him apart from XIX Galician photographers and could not prevent his work from being just a repetition of what Pedro Ferrer and some others had made in his Portfolio Galicia at the begining of the century. 18 It is important to point out how Galician photographers were overcome by foreign visitors who, in a short time, showed them in a bad light in their own country. Despite the photographic activity in the first third of the century, the Galician society did not assimilate the new aesthetic movements, keeping aside from the artistic vanguards emerging in Europe at that time. Thanks to some especialized publications, some photographers knew these ideas, but they were not even able to imitate them. In the thirties, for the first time in Galicia and thanks to

13 José Suárez's work, we cand find new proposals that tried to blend the traditional culture with the contemporary plastic trends. Ruth M. Anderson's Galician essay is a superb example of an excellent photographic work, not only because of the difficulties she had to overcome (language, moving, processing in unsuitable places) but also because of her great documentary effort and previus planning. Taking photographs meant to face technical problems like the lack of light in places without a view, mainly in churches, solved with a small flash for the details or long exposures for general shots. Inside shots made Ruth feel uncertain and this feeling grew when she saw the excellent finishing of some photographs by Arxiu Mas bought in Barcelona. In his diaries, Alfred Anderson, wrote about Ruth's uncertainty with regard to these photographs and this makes her work even worthier: Ruth did not know very much about the problems she was going to find in Galicia and, until that moment, her professional experience was based on studio works at The Hispanic Society. During the months she was in Galicia, Ruth made the processing in a campaign laboratory in her own hotel or inn room. She had the colour photographs, always of regional costumes and sunlight taken because of the low sensibility of the emulsions, processed in EEUU. Once processed and clasified, the black and white prints were also sent to The Hispanic Society. Ruth also dispatched photographs of Galician authors - Saravia, Pacheco, Zagala, Ksado, Ferrer- bought with the aim of enlarging the museum pictorial archive. Ruth took down every single detail of her photographs, not only the technical ones (brand and kind of negative, diaphragm, exposure time, developer) but also location, subject, date, time and weather conditions. Every important element of each shot was carefully described. For example, with regard to one of her first photographs in Galicia, taken in Vigo in August 1924, she wrote: A side view of the gaitero. The bag of the gaita is of black velvet marked with initials in red cross stitch. When she portraits Hotel Comercio's owner and his family in Betanzos sitting for lunch she wrote down not only the right position of the tablecloth but also the dishes (caldo) and the important rol of the toothpicks. With regard to a photograph taken in Corbubión of the pitching game she even copied some of the rules: Cuando se toca a la cruz, cuenta 8. La peja (sic) que está más cerca a la raya vale un tanto; la que toque a la raya en la tierra vale dos tantos. 19 In August, 1925 Ruth and her father finished their pilgrimage around Galicia -they had gone as far as Asturias, León and they had also spent some days in Madrid- and went back to New York after taking almost 5,000 original photographs and after buying some 2,800 from most important Galician photographers. In December of that same year, Ruth came back to Galicia to finish her essay. Francis Spaldin ( ), fellow at The Hispanic Society, came with her. She drove all around Galicia in a second hand Ford prepared to carry the photographic equipment comfortably. In May, 1926 she went back to USA with 2,300 new photographs of her dear Galician project. Ruth M. Anderson's work did not come out until 1939, published with the title Gallegan Provinces of Spain: Pontevedra and La Coruña. Containing almost 700 photographs it is a well documented and interesting book. It only includes the journeys around these two provinces but not Ourense and Lugo, however, present not only in her pilgrimages but also at The Hispanic Society photographic archive. Ruth M. Anderson's essay had no relevance in Galicia, not only because the publication year was also the last one of the Spanish Civil War but also because of the later cultural isolation. Just some scholars, like Luis Seoane 20, showed publically, some years later, that they knew Ruth M. Anderson's work. It never existed

14 for Galician photography and the chance to establish a behavioural pattern got lost, which would have saved too much useless effort later on. After her journey to Galicia, Ruth M. Anderson gradually drifted apart from photography and she became a specialist on the history of the costume in Spain. She travelled all around Extremadura between 1927 and 1928, accompanied again by Frances Spalding, with a similar aim as when she had been in Galicia but this time focusing on the popular costume. In 1951 it came out Spanish Costume: Extremadura and in 1979, four years before she died, Hispanic Costume , a collection of her historical research into Spanish costume, necessary reference material on this subject. The almost 6,500 photographs making up the extraordinary Anderson Fund preserved at The Hispanic Society mean one of the most remarkable photographic collections ever made about Galicia. From a documentary point of view, we can stand out mainly the variety of subjects and locations that make up the wider photographic picture known about Galicia. Its surprising enthusiasm to define the essences of Galician land and people, their identity signs, turns it into an essential plastic reference point and, nowadays, into a crucial contribution to recover our historical memory.

15 notes 1. Thurston Thompson's works in Santiago de Compostela are throughly studied by Lee Fontanella at Charles Thurston Thompson e o proxecto fotográfico ibérico, Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe-Xunta de Galicia, Xosé Enrique Acuña; Fotografía, Gran Enciclopedia Gallega, t. XXXII. 3. The Hispanic Society of America Handbook. Museum and Library collections, New York, The Hispanic Society of America, His father, Collis P. Huntington, was the founder of the railway company Central Pacific Railroad, owner of big shipyards in New Port and also of one of the biggest fortunes in USA. 5. The key points of Archer M. Huntington's career are shown at Gilman Proske, Beatrice; Archer Milton Huntington, translation by María Brey Mariño, New York, The Hispanic Society of America, With regard to the relationship of Huntington with Galicia consult Juan Arias' articles Archer M. Huntington, talento y cultura en Galicia, (La Voz de Galicia, 9 April, 1994) and Archer Milton Huntington, talento y cultura de un hispanista (El Ideal Gallego, 29 June, 1997). 6. Huntington, Archer Milton; A Note-Book in Northern Spain, New York-London, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Information provided by María de la O Suárez, director of Arquivo Histórico Municipal da Coruña. 8. If you want a wider consult about White's photography school and its historical context see Yochelson, Bonnie and Erwin, Kathleen A.; Pictorialism into Modernism. The Clarence H. White School of Photography, New York, Rizzoli, Paul Anderson ( ) with no familiar relationship with Ruth M. Anderson. 10. The interest of The Hispanic Society in Galica was not something new. Besides the journey of its founder in 1892, this institution sponsored the three volume publishing of the prestigious work The Way of Saint James by Georgian Goddard Kind in Alfred Anderson wrote a diary during his stay in Galicia -summarized into its most important episodes in an appendix at the end of this book-, published by his daughter Elizabeth Uldall with the title Extracts from father's diaries: Alfred Anderson in Spain with his daughter Ruth, July, 1924-July, 1925 (Edinburgh, 1986). 12. Luca de Tena, Gustavo; Safari impresionista ao arrabaldo do norte, A Nosa Terra, n. 351, 21 July, Philips, Christopher; Los Estados Unidos: La sociedad americana, in Lemagny, Jean-Claude and Rouillé, André (dir.); Historia de la fotografía, Barcelona, Alcor, 1988, p Íbidem. 15. Acuña, Xosé Enrique; Una visión de Galicia, El País, Artes, 10 September, Ruth M. Anderson knew perfectly Rosalía de Castro's poetic work. The reading of this poet from Padrón would help her to give a special photographic view of Galicia. In 1938 The Hispanic Society published Ruth M. Anderson's translations of Spanish poets, and among them Rosalía and Paio Gómez Chariño. 17. Acuña, Xosé Enrique; Impacto e imaxe da Galiza através das fotografías de Ruth Matilda Anderson, A Nosa Terra, n. 351, 21 July, Xosé Enrique Acuña is an essential reference and almost the only one

16 to understand the meaning of Ruth M. Anderson's essay and also its context setting in the historical scene of photography in Galicia. 18. Ibidem. 19. In Spanish at the photography card (Card n , Photographic Archive, The Hispanic Society of America). 20. Luis Seone published in 1955 an article, A pequena leiteira, regarding to a photograph taken by Ruth Anderson with the same title, in Galicia Emigrante (Buenos Aires, year II, n. 8, January, 1955).