The exhibition ‘Revealed stories’ aims to expose the importance of the photograph collections of the municipal archives of the districts in the construction of the city’s history to recover those stories that have been forgotten in the official version. The premise begins with the important link between photography and urban history and the idea of the photograph archives acting as depositories for a part of the collective memory which, given their importance, has still not been fully realised in a city such as Barcelona, where over time, the story of the urban centre has predominated.

At the same time, it aims to highlight how these archives have been created: by collecting the visual stories that make up popular memory. A large part of these collections come from private donations, both personal and family, as well as those that belong to entities, associations or companies from the different areas of the city of Barcelona. This comprises a heritage of approximately 250,000 photographs that date back to the end of the 19th century and the whole of the 20th century and is constantly growing with new additions.

The selection is divided into five topics to include material from different archives and of particular importance is the photographic representation of work in Barcelona, as well as the importance of the family albums in the urban history, the acceptance of amateur photography (still little-known and with a significant presence in the neighbourhoods of Barcelona), the festivals and urban imaginary, and a reflection of the archives of the present and the future.

Ultimately, it is the history of the neighbourhoods and their people, from a diverse range of photographic viewpoints and practices, and in which there are still many stories to be included and revealed.