Javier Reyes Acuña, the photographer who captured post-war Haría and La Graciosa for posterity, has died at the age of 97.
Born in 1926, Javier Reyes Acuña took up photography as a hobby in the 1940s and soon realized that he could make a living out of it. For almost thirty years he was Haría’s only photographer, taking portraits of locals and attending countless social events such as weddings, christenings and parties.
Although he put down his camera in 1972, the archive of thousands of photos that he created is one of the most valuable records of Lanzarote and a cornerstone of the island’s Digital Memory project.
Reyes Acuña captured many of the most iconic images of life in the north of Lanzarote, including photos of the women of La Graciosa descending the Famara cliff with baskets of wares balanced on their heads.
He was awarded the title of Favoured Son of Haría last year at a ceremony during which Mayor Afredo Villalba called him “the eye of Haría”.
