Photographer who paid a debt of honor

The exhibition Más que niños (or, More than children), currently on display at the Royal Palace of La Granja, close to the historic city of Segovia, portrays the Spain of the 1950s and 1960s: dark, harsh years when much of the country had barely emerged from the devastation and misery of the Civil War.

The man who took the photographs, Francisco Ontañón, and who died in 2008 at the age of 78, knew his subject well: he was just six when his father was killed fighting for the Republican army in the Battle of the Ebro, and his mother died soon after, "from a broken heart," he often said. Like so many of his generation he grew up quickly - the hard way, earning money to support his brothers and sisters from odd jobs and working as a messenger in Barcelona. Ontañón was drawn to photography after delivering some bills to a photographic studio, buying himself a cheap camera and largely teaching himself, determined to take up the profession, which he did in his late twenties, moving to Madrid to work for Europa Press.

Ontañón always maintained a connection to his harsh early years through his work both as a press photographer (he joined EL PAÍS in the early 1980s) and in his own work. Throughout his career he repaid the debt to his origins by continuing to record the lives of ordinary people, portraying their suffering, as well as their dignity in the face of hardship and injustice. The small but impressive collection of images on show at La Granja illustrates powerfully his sense of photographic honor.

Más que niños. Until December 16 at arteSonado, C/ Rey 9, La Granja de San Ildefonso. www.galeriartesonado.es