Plaza de América and Palacio de Arte Antiguo in the Park of María Luisa

Photographic plate with the Plaza de América and Palacio de Artes Antiguos in the Park of María Luisa.

The Loty photographic archive held at the museum was acquired by the Regional Ministry of Culture in 1995. It consists of 2,346 glass plates of images of Andalusia (excluding the provinces of Granada and Almería), Gibraltar and north Africa, showing the most representative landmarks of each town, street scenes, workshops, docks, festivities, Andalusian traditions, etc.

The Loty Collections firm was created in 1925 through a partnership between photographic paper seller Charles Alberty Jeanneret and graphic publishing house Concepción López y López. In its 11 years of life, the commercial brand offered numerous services related to reproduction and reprography including the production and publication of postcards and religious prints.

Given the commercial opportunities of creating a photographic collection, Alberty embarked on an ambitious project called Archivo Fotográfico Universal, S.A. (AFUSA) with a view to creating a bank of images of Spain, Portugal and Latin America for subsequent sale to press agencies, publications and tourist companies.

They hired Antonio Passaporte, a Portuguese man with experience in the sector because of his family ties to the business, in 1926, as a photographer and salesman. He used his business trips to take photographs Until 1936 Alberty and López organised, advised and financed Passporte's travels through numerous cities in Spain, Portugal, north Africa, and even Buenos Aires. During this decade the Loty Collections photographic archive took shape and consisted of 12,000 glass plates that were commercially exploited for post cards and posters.