Exhibition in Las Ventas on «Vandel»: "The luck of a life. Bullfighting snapshots"

The glass plates and some in acetate (cellulose nitrate) in 9 X 12 cm., With emulsion of gelatin-silver bromide, obtained approximately 100 years ago have been digitized by the Regional Library of Madrid in a tiff format, reproducing the complete negative, with its conservation defects, breaks, metallic silver, marks of the passage of time, both for improper handling (fingerprints, scratches, adhered dust) and for the fixation used at the time. From the Center of Bullfighting Affairs, for this exhibition, the tiff files have been treated to enhance the photographs, frame the best detail and eliminate or hide as much as possible the metal stains. The content of the image has been respected to the maximum, avoiding unnecessary touch-ups so as not to add new information and keep intact what was captured by the «Vandel» camera in each snapshot.

With this sample, it is intended to contribute to the growing recognition of the figure of "Vandel", deserving of a prominent position among all those pioneers of photography installed in a central Madrid open to a new century and its innovations.

Juan Pacheco Padial «Vandel», born in the Spanish Puerto Rico the 23 of September of 1884, was a multifaceted character with great artistic concerns. Draftsman, photographer, sculptor, occasional actor, writer and film camera, he studied Philosophy and Letters at the Central University of Madrid and Fine Arts at the Madrid School of San Fernando. After living for several years in Paris, from 1911 he would mount his emblematic photo studio in the 3 number of the Puerta del Sol, through which the main artists and bullfighters of the time passed, acquiring since then a preponderant role, within their multiple professional activities, the one dedicated to bullfighting photography.

A great fan of the Festival, during the so-called «Golden Age» of bullfighting «Vandel» collaborated with different bullfighting publications such as Sun and Shadow, La Lidia, La Corrida de Barcelona y The Hobby of Zaragoza, among others, where their snapshots were published. In 1917 he would found, together with Isidro Amorós ("Don Justo"), his own weekly bulls, The Times, name humorously taken from the famous London newspaper, of which he will be a partner and administrator and for which he makes photographic reports, later becoming his artistic director until his disappearance in 1925, then continued for a short time by the newspaper No The Times. Four years later his work was published Discipline: Cinematic drama of military customs.

Famous were the photographs of "Vandel" of the mortal grip of Manolo Granero that illustrate the brochure Granary the idol (1921) of "The Bold Knight", as well as the 26 images that Ernest Hemingway will choose to illustrate the first edition of Death in the Afternoon (1932). Also, the photograph published on the 49 page of volume V of The Bulls, of Cossío, in which you can see up to five horses dead in the sand during the luck of rods; or that of the main facade of the Plaza de Tetuán de las Victorias, towards 1910, glossed by Durán and Sánchez Vigil in the first volume of its History of bullfighting photography (1990)

His fondness for bullfighting became such that he seized even the right-handed Gavira; and became a remarkable collector of memories of those bullfighters with whom he shared friendship. From 1926, however, his concerns will make him focus his activity on the cinematograph, being one of the main camera operators in the final stage of silent cinema in our country. He took part in the productions of famous directors such as Benito Perojo or José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, among others; and from his new film facet, he will record various bullfighting scenes on tapes like The ride hood (1927) The fool of Lagartera (1928) o The enchantment of Seville (1930)

His pseudonym "Vandel" took him as an anagram of the name and surname of a young French actress, whom he fell in love at the beginning during his stay in Paris. Already at the time of the sound film, he will work for ASE Productions as chief operator, collaborating on films such as Ten days millionaire (1934) o The daughter of Juan Simón (1935), his last work before dying the 19 of November of that year. His photographic studio continued to be run for some time by his widow and children. Three of them also stood out as directors of cinematographic photography, and the family artistic tradition would continue through his grandson Mario Pacheco (1950-2010), photographer and music producer, creator of the record label Nuevos Medios. Currently, his great-grandson Álvaro Sahún Pacheco is the co-founder of the shoe brand "Vandel".