The Memoria Digital de Lanzarote web portal, managed by the Cabildo's Data Center, is carrying out an expansion of its collection of old images of the island, both photographic and film material.
This service aims to "recover and disseminate the audiovisual and documentary heritage of Lanzarote and La Graciosa", and is integrated into the area coordinated by Councilor Myriam Barros.
Barros has expressed her gratitude "to institutions and individuals who have given or donated their images, allowing the Memoria Digital de Lanzarote project to be enriched and contributing to rescuing the island's past to make it available to citizens."
Home movies from the 1970s
Among the latest additions to www.memoriadelanzarote.com, it is worth mentioning the series of films in super 8 format shot in Lanzarote and La Graciosa by the amateur filmmaker Roberto Rodríguez in the 1970s, and which have been ceded by the Cabildo de La Palma.
Likewise, the Cabildo points out that new home movies shot by individuals from the island such as Ventura Acuña, Manuel Perdomo, Julián Martín and Juan Luz have been uploaded, and the integration into the portal of donations of home movies such as those of Amelia Díaz, the Pérez Niz family, etc., is being carried out, as well as material from VHS format videos ceded by Juan Parrilla and Francisco Hernández, which collect interesting social aspects of the island.
The digitization of the VHS video collection of the Cabildo de Lanzarote has also been carried out, which includes the cultural activity that took place on the island in the 1980s, among which the performances of international music and dance groups that took place in the auditorium of Jameos del Agua stand out.
The Moscow Choir, the New York company Momix Dance, the prestigious jazz trio of Teté Montoliu, etc. appear performing in this emblematic space that had been inaugurated a few years before, in 1977. All this material is being documented and gradually incorporated into the Memoria Digital de Lanzarote portal.
In addition, after an agreement with the Ministry of Culture, part of the collection of the defunct television network Lanzarote Televisión, which is deposited in the Teguise Archive after being donated by the property, will soon be digitized. Likewise, in the coming dates the film material of Lanzarote -almost all shot in the 1960s- ceded by the Centro de Cultura Audiovisual de Gran Canaria, with which a collaboration agreement has been initiated, will be incorporated.
On the other hand, the donations of the extensive film collection of Ángel Hernández, who was a cameraman for Televisión Española in Lanzarote since the 1990s, as well as part of the collection of the defunct Archipiélago Televisión station, ceded by Corporación Lanzaroteña de Medios S.L., have recently been received.
Prestigious photographers
The portal of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, which is managed by the Data Center, is also making available to the public new collections of prestigious professional photographers who traveled to Lanzarote in the mid-20th century, among whom is Nicolás Muller (1913-2000), whose digital collection has been ceded to the Cabildo de Lanzarote by the Regional Archive of the Community of Madrid.
The images taken by Muller on the island, which can be seen at www.memoriadelanzarote.com, correspond to his professional facet as a documentary photographer, collecting ethnographic and architectural aspects of the rural and fishing world of the 1960s.
Another relevant collection that has been incorporated into the portal is that of the archaeologist Luis Diego Cuscoy (1907-1987), which has been ceded by the Archaeological Museum of Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) and which contains photographs taken by the author during his visits between 1950 and 1970.
Donations of collections from individuals and tourists
Also noteworthy are the donations to the Memoria Digital de Lanzarote project by individuals such as Domingo Pérez, Manuel Rodríguez, Nieves Fajardo, Eleuterio Oliva, Cleofé Acuña, etc. or the extensive collection of the collector Carlos Rojano, which includes an interesting series of images taken by an anonymous Swiss tourist, or the extensive collection ceded by the British travelers William and Vera Oswald who visited the island in the 1980s.
In this sense, the Cabildo de Lanzarote is making a call to all those people who wish to digitize their photographs, videos, films of the island prior to the year 2000 to contact the project through the email [email protected], calling the telephone number 928 81 01 00 (extension 3000) or going directly to La Casa Amarilla, located at Calle León y Castillo number 6 in Arrecife.
