ABSTRACT
The introduction of photography and later of photomechanical technologies in late-nineteenth-century illustrated magazines was transformative, easing the transition from limited run productions catering largely to the monied classes to mass produced periodicals targeting a middle-class readership. This chapter examines this transformation in two of Madrid's most popular periodicals during the thirty-year period from 1880 to 1910, widely considered the heyday of Spanish illustrated weeklies. When improved technology reduced exposure times from minutes to seconds, photographic portraiture became the rage in Spain as it did elsewhere in Europe. By the 1860s, in addition to individual portraits, well-to-do clients could purchase albums of household scenes, fine art, buildings, monuments, and provincial types produced by photo studios that sprang up in the major urban centers of Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla.
