José Ortiz-Echagüe (August 2, 1886 in Guadalajara – September 7, 1980 in Madrid) was a Spanish entrepreneur, industrial and military engineer, pilot and photographer, founder of Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) and Honorary lifetime President of SEAT (Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo).

He discovered the art of photography at the age of 12, when he received as a present his first photographic camera from an uncle who was military attaché in Paris: it was a Kodak camera with which he took his first photographs and began to develop his artistic talent. In 1903, he made a photo in La Rioja during the sermon in a village church ('Sermon en la aldea'), for which he received the first prize in the following year at an exhibition in Vitoria. Already in 1904, the Spanish photo magazine 'Graphos Ilustrado' published a report on his photos.

Between 1909 and 1916 while he had moved to the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco, he started his photographic documentary passion, which he continued on his return to Spain. Since 1898 when he got his first camera, he took thousands of photographs entirely in black-and-white. He exposed his negatives using a special technique similar to the carbon printing one ('carbón fresson') which was the mainstream practice during his youth.

Later, in 1950, he established the first assembly line Spanish car maker 'Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo S.A.' (S.E.A.T. S.A.) becoming its first ever President to be eventually appointed its Executive President until 1976.

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