"Press, then photography" in Asturias: The beginnings of the Region newspaper

Abstract

The following article is part of an ongoing investigation into the use of photography in the Asturian press and its ability to convey, from a sociological point of view, the most outstanding events in the history of Asturias. Specifically, from 1930 to the present day. This broad chronological framework is due to a bibliographic gap, where there is no unified study of 20th century Asturian photojournalism and which places an apparent end point to its history between the second and third decades of the century. In this context, the case study selected for this article arises, the Diario Región, which also lacks an individual investigation at present. It was also born at a convulsive moment for the province, just a few months before the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. He will experience worse episodes, managing to age until his last issue, in 1983. After sixty years of work, his writing was a great support for photography, defender of its capacity as a means of communication and transmission of ideas. In this way, thanks to this newspaper, we obtain one of the best visual memories of the Asturian 20th century.