Item NMC/1459 - Torre Bellesguard

Michael Thomas Jones, from Cumbernauld, was a visiting professor at The Glasgow School of Art. He is based and works in London.
The suite of photographs featuring Barcelona in our collection comes from a photo essay called "Modernista":
"Modernista is a photographic essay by Michael Thomas Jones, a graduate of The Glasgow School of Art. It is an exhibition that seeks to contextualise the late 19th century buildings of Gaudi and his fellow ‘modernista’ architects as being more than just bricks and mortar. Gaudi’s work, in particular, has been the subject of extensive photographic surveys in the past but almost all have sought to emphasise the defined architectural merit of his work. By contrast, Michael Jones has viewed some of Barcelona’s most significant architectural works in terms of ‘people and place’, looking beyond the well-established ‘coffee-table monographs’ and ‘picture postcard views’. He has engaged some of the unsung individuals who work or live within these architectural landmarks. Additionally, he has captured the way in which many of these building’s now sit somewhat incongruously with their near neighbours, as the city has grown and developed; whilst others have been adapted and modified to meet the changing landscape of the city and the needs of society today." (Peter Trowles, Mackintosh Curator, The Glasgow School of Art)