Sala Losdijck Collection
La imatge perduda
The Vilassar of a hundred years ago in one hundred images
The one hundred images of this exhibition reproduce the identity of Vilassar from over a century ago. You will notice the difference between the image of a postcard prepared for circulation (with all the beauty it must recreate to have good commercial performance) and the image of the photographer sensitized as a witness of an era with all its reality.
In the village, a hundred years ago, there may have been two or three cameras, a good example of this is the scarcity of images and copies of them.
Then came to Vilassar the great publishers and photographers of the country, at the same time that the sending of postcards as a means of communication was normalized.
The Vilassar of 1900 is a town full of textile factories, streets of “cases de cos”, old farmhouses, and a few summer residencies. Over the years, Vilassar has evolved, but the photographs in this exhibition allow us to relive that municipality of just over three thousand inhabitants.
Sala Losdijck Collection
It all begins with a discovery forty years ago. In the Plaza Real of Barcelona, Joan Sala i Grau discovers a postcard of his street in Vilassar de Dalt, and faced with this event that he considers “almost a miracle,” the collector’s desire for historical images begins.
Although it started as a collection focused mainly on snapshots of Vilassar de Dalt, the search expands by inertia to adjacent territories and grows to reach a significant amount that allows the creation of a book: La Imatge Perduda. Years later, a second book is published: Arran del Camí Ral.
Far from stopping here, this collection continues with the Sala-Vilà family, second and third generations, with the aim of expanding it and, no less important, with its indexing, referencing, digitization, and preservation. Thus, the Sala Losdijck Collection is consolidated, reaffirming the will to make known such a rich cultural and historical heritage of the territory, making it accessible now also through Instagram: @laimatgeperduda.
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