Una imagen del encierro finalista del concurso de Kodak en 1931

Kerri MacDonald and Darcy Eveleigh, authors of the New York Times photography blog (LENS), have discovered a snapshot taken at the Sanfermin running of the bulls in 1931 and which was selected as a finalist in that year’s Photo Competition which Kodak had been organizing since 1920. Luis García Gurbindo, from Pamplona, and a keen amateur photographer, sent in a snapshot taken against the sunlight as the bulls entered the bullring in Sanfermin. The black and white photo impressively captures the drama of the moment. The quality of the photo earned it the right to be the cover photo of the blog during one week and in the photo competition, held way back in the nineteen thirties, it was selected as a finalist by the jury.

There is no evidence to be found in the Pamplona Municipal Archives of any photos from this local amateur. To take the photo and to be able to enter the competition, the amateur photographer had to use a Kodak No. 1. More precisely, the No. 1A AUTOGRAPHIC KODAK 1917, a model which was being sold in The USA for 21 dollars between 1917 and 1924. It should be underlined that the camera carried a Bausch & Lomb lens of f4.5/90mm and a Wollensak Optimum No 1 clicking system, which were absolutely necessary to allow the image to be properly taken under the conditions of light and speed on that far distant day. The snapshot has been calculated to have been taken in the year1931 although there is no clear evidence to confirm this. Should anyone be able to throw any further light on this unique photo, contact can be made at fermin@sanfermin.com