Cèsar Malet
Cèsar Malet completed his secondary education
and his courses in business studies and languages but
continued his photographic activity throughout, as he
felt a true vocation to be a photographer. Eventually
this became his sole interest in the professional sphere.
In 1958, Malet studied technical photography in Switzerland
and France and worked doing personal research and experimentation
in his chosen field. At the same time, he did a number
of commercial jobs taking portraits and producing industrial
and photojournalistic reports. His work was published
in Fotogramas, Garbo, Distinción and El Noticiero
Universal in the “City Nights” section.
In 1960, he opened a professional photography studio
in Barcelona and worked in the fields of advertising,
fashion, industry, portraiture, illustration and reportage.
In 1967, he founded the Experimental Art Laboratory
in collaboration with the painter Josep M. Berenguer
and produced the “Res” collection of photographs.
These images were shown in the Sala Aixelà in
Barcelona, at the Galería Juana Mordó
in Madrid, and in the exhibition rooms of the Caja de
Ahorros Provincial de Valladolid savings bank.
In 1970, he produced a collection of photographs for
the book Informe personal sobre el alba, with poems
by Carlos Barral, published by Lumen. These images were
exhibited in large format in the Sala Aixelà
in Barcelona.
He produced a series of portraits of 26 Spanish writers
interviewed by Federico Campbell for the bookInfame
Turba, published by Lumen (first edition: 1970; second
edition: 1994).
In 1973, he travelled to the United States and spent
three years living in Los Angeles, where he worked in
the International Publicity Department of 20th Century
Fox. His work from this period included photographic
reports and portraits. He worked on the still photograph
of the film Iron and Horse, an American Film Institute
production on which Vilmos Zsigmond was Director of
Photography. He made contact with the Association of
Professional Photographers in Los Angeles and visited
film and photography studios. He broadened his horizons
in his craft and learned new techniques.
He returned to Barcelona in 1976 and settled back into
his studio once again. He produces highly specialist
advertising photographs and portraits and photographic
reports. He also continues his experimental work.
Cèsar Malet
(Photograph: Miquel Guasch)
EL NOMBRE DEL FOTÓGRAFO
“Copas en la terraza del Pub de Tuset Street
bullicioso y nocturno con Betina, rubia y nórdica,
que me riñe por beber tanto y drogarme con optas.
Ella ingiere una negruzca píldora de potentes
efectos antieróticos, dice. Tiene un tigre en
el culo, esta chica, pero lo mantiene a raya. Aparecen
Joan de Sagarra y Enric Barbat, luego Nuria y Pere Garcés,
luego Portabella. En la mesa vecina, César Malet
y Enric Sió deslizan piropos al oído crapuloso
de una adolescente gordita y risueña. César
Malet cada día más parecido a los Hermanos
Marx (los tres juntos)”. El texto pertenece a
Noches de Bocaccio, una parodia sobre la llamada Gauche
Divine que escribí hace veinticinco años
y que mereció escasa atención y nula credibilidad
debido a la naturaleza fantasmal y delicuescente de
los personajes. Sin embargo eran seres reales, y el
más real de todos, pese a su triple encarnación
marxista, era César. Enseguida nos hicimos amigos
y admiré su talento para captar y fijar ambientes,
cuerpos hermosos, vivencias y ritmos, repliegues sombríos
de la noche urbana, extravagantes efusiones de la modistería,
efluvios de apocados guateques, alcoholes furtivos y
residuales de la pertinaz dictadura. Los carnosos años
sesenta. Y sobre todo, rostros. Un García Márquez
de tórridas facciones caribeñas, un Carlos
Barral asilvestrado, recién salido del mar de
Calafell con algas en el pelo, un dandy Jaime Gil de
Biedma que podría competir en elegancia, pulcritud
y veracidad con los mejores retratos hechos a Luis Cernuda,
la carátula insomne de Gabriel Ferrater suspendida
en las sombras, la gracia infantil y amansada de Ana
Mª Moix, la mueca de un Pere Gimferrer en las alturas
y sin melenas, la bruma musical de Jamboree y una canción
de Gloria Stewart, en cuyas manos y brazos se enrosca
el jazz primordial de nuestra juventud.
Por todo ello celebro esta muestra como un feliz reencuentro
con el arte de un fotógrafo singular y excepcional,
lúcido y de mirada cáustica, indómita.
La que aplica, por ejemplo, a ese sujeto elegante y
con bastón que exhibe un impecable y aguerrido
modelo para caballero mientras, a espaldas suyas, en
perfecta sintonía formal y postinera, que no
de vestimenta, sonríen gloriosamente dos golfillos
zarrapastrosos. Bravo, César.
Juan Marsé
