Joan Colom has become one of the great photographers of the fifties and sixties of the last century. Through his street photographs, he captured with passion and at the same time respect the spirit of Barcelona’s Raval neighbourhood during those years.

This book is a facsimile edition of the album that Joan Colom gave in 1973 to his friend Josep Mª Casademont, a pioneering gallery owner and photography critic. The photographs that make up this magnificent legacy, some of them unpublished, remained in the hands of the Casademont family until they became part of the collection of the Foto Colectania Foundation.

The images were taken between 1958 and 1964, and belong to his emblematic series Gente de la calle, which has become not only a chronicle of a neighbourhood and an era, but also a true human story. The value of this photographic ensemble lies in the excellent layout of the album, designed by Colom himself, which resulted in a narrative of extraordinary rhythm with suggestive and expressive sequences. The selected images and their agile layout make it a true author’s book.

This publication was published on the occasion of the exhibition Álbum. Joan Colom, presented at the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona, Spain, between June and September 2011.