Basque ethnography at a glance

Postcard edited by Felipe Manterola: “Sunday afternoon”. Photograph taken in the Zulaibar neighborhood (Zeanuri). Decade of 1910.

There are numerous works of ethnographic nature that feature photographs of Arratia and especially of Zeanuri, often without mentioning the author. In most cases the photographer is Felipe Manterola.

Felipe Manterola Urigoitia (1885-1977) was born and resident of Zeanuri. In 1897 his mother was widowed and Felipe, being the eldest of three brothers, took over the family business known in his municipality as The tobacconist shop — shoe store, shop, café and meeting place. But, in addition, he was a great photographer and was frequently called upon to take portraits and reports, even if he never worked as a professional.

His first photographs date from 1904. He developed them himself in a small studio he had in his own house.

Self-portrait by Felipe Manterola. 1908.

His images were also used in numerous publications: in the magazine “Novedades” from San Sebastián; in the “Enciclopedia Geografía General del País Vasco-Navarro”; between 1925 and 1926 he collaborated with the priest Eulogio Gorostiaga to illustrate with his images the research “Establecimientos humanos y la casa rural” (Human Establishments and the Rural House) of the “Anuario Eusko Folklore”; in 1931 in the book “Folclore y costumbres de España” (Folclore and Customs of Spain), he illustrated the texts of Telesforo Aranzadi on agriculture and Basque dances; in the first edition of “Los Vascos” (The Basques), Julio Caro Baroja used a couple of images of Manterola; in the work “Euskaldunak”. “La Etnia Vasca” (Basque Ethnicity), directed by José Miguel Barandiaran, several of his photographs were collected…

During the second decade of the 20th century he also made collections of postcards with his photographs. Some were published in Germany, others in France and others in Bilbao, in this last city they were prepared by the Lux house, and most of the postcards carried a text written in Basque at the bottom.

Manterola has been the subject of several exhibitions, the first in 1983 organised by the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, entitled “Felipe Manterola Argazkiak (1904-1930) Fotografías”, and the catalogue of the exhibition was published.

More recently, two books have been published about his work: one, written by Josu Fullaondo, entitled “Felipe Manterola. Photographer of a rural society”; the other, published by his family: “Felipe Manterola. Zeanuriko argazkilaria”.

Postcard edited by Felipe Manterola: “Basque agrarian works”. Gregorio Bengoetxea, from the Orbe farmhouse (Zeanuri), in front of the pair of oxen and on the cart, his son Gabriel. Decade of 1910.

He touched not only the world of photography, but also the world of cinema, and around 1930, using a 16-millimeter camera, he made short essays on documentary themes, both of daily life and events in Zeanuri.

The Civil War interrupted the prolific photographic career he had undertaken. On August 1, 1937 he was arrested and after three years he was released, on August 12, 1940. When he returned home, he was 55 years old and abandoned his hobby, which began in 1904, and only continued to make occasional family portraits. In the years after the war he also colored some earlier photographs with watercolors.

Recently the Manterola family has donated Felipe’s photographic archive to the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao. Previously they deposited the film in the Basque Film Library.

Jon Urutxurtu