Lucien Hervé. España blanca y España negra

Spanish popular architecture and the monastery of El Escorial through the eyes of Lucien Hervé.

Lucien Hervé (1910-2007) was one of the great architectural photographers of the 20th century. His methodological and conceptual patterns were reflected in his work, which included a long collaboration with Le Corbusier.

In 1958 he started a photobook project on the monastery of El Escorial commissioned by the RM publishing house in Barcelona, and a year later, during a trip around Spain, a second commission arose on popular Mediterranean architecture. Although they remained unpublished, both works were constantly revised by the photographer throughout his life.

Sixty years later, both photobooks were published, preceded by specialised texts by architects Javier Mosteiro and Marco Iuliano. The publication is completed by a volume in which Iñaki Bergera and the art historian Horacio Fernández offer an overview of the artist’s life and explore the relationship between these two projects.