Lugo, 9 November 2026 – At the Arquivo Histórico Provincial de Lugo the exhibition “Polos camiños da vida: o fondo fotográfico Santy López” has opened. It showcases 140 photographs from the archive of the Galician photographer, which Santy López donated to the Xunta de Galicia in 2023. According to the authority, the entire collection comprises around 70,000 images.
At the opening, Anxo M. Lorenzo, Secretary-General for Culture of the Xunta de Galicia, emphasised the role of public archives in preserving and making accessible the photographic heritage of Galicia. The responsible authority is the Consellería de Cultura, Lingua e Xuventude. The aim of transferring the collection to the administration was to ensure that the images are properly conserved and catalogued, and made available for research and to the public.
The exhibition arranges the selection chronologically, from the late 1970s to 2022. According to the exhibition text, its thematic highlights include the Camino de Santiago, documentary photojournalism, and groups of works showing the author’s collaboration with writers and visual artists. The city of Sarria and its surrounding area are particularly well represented, giving the collection considerable value as a local source.
Official sources give different dates for the exhibition’s run. The Xunta’s press release gives the closing date as the “first week of March 2027”. The Arquivos de Galicia platform’s events page, however, lists the period from 9 November 2026 to 31 March 2027. Both dates come from the respective official publications and refer to the same exhibition at the Arquivo Histórico Provincial de Lugo.
With its acquisition of the archive in 2023, the Consellería is pursuing the long-term expansion of public access. The documents reviewed did not specify dates for a complete digitisation or comprehensive online publication of the entire collection. The current exhibition brings key parts of the material to public view and also serves to test classification and cataloguing criteria.
The move underscores the Xunta de Galicia’s cultural policy approach of bringing photographic collections together in provincial archives and promoting their use. For research into regional and contemporary history in Galicia – particularly the Camino de Santiago and social changes since the 1980s – the selection in Lugo provides a compact, curated introduction to the work of Santy López.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).