Jail cells and torture chambers became classrooms....

Last week was filled of events connecting back to my investigation over the Argentine dictatorship in result to the fact that 24^th  of March is a national holiday in memory of “El Golpe de El Estado”. Throughout the week at school videos were shown in the auditorium during lunch; each depicting a different child’s story that was born during the dictatorships kidnapped and placed in an illegitimate family. On Wednesday the students of Manuel Belgrano surrounded the balcony’s, gathered on the floors, and flooded the stairways as we paid honor the loss of classmates due the dictatorship.  An alumni of the school got up and spoke about his two friends that where disappeared from the school when the headmaster turned in names of students to the military; alleged terrorist that in fractured upon the state, otherwise known as 16 year-old children. The 10 photographs, black and white, dating back to the 1970´s hung below argentines celest blue flag, depicting the faces of the students. As the alumni told his story his tears quickly changed to anger “!Hijas de Putas!” (son of bicths!) in reference to the military. Hi anger could be easily justified but I found it inappropriate. That morning I had also passed a sign that read never forget nor forgive. What happened was horrible a clear violation of human rights. But these types of actions never result in peace. If Immaculee Llibagaza after being locked in a closet sized bathroom with 9 other women for 3 months during the Rwandan genocide was able to come out and face the man that slaughtered her family with forgiveness, what was the difference in this case? Not that I’m asking the same but anger will not bring vengeance. Off that subject for now… The 24^th I met with my friend to visit a detention center that was being opened into a museum. We boarded the busses in the morning that drove us to the outskirts of the city. In the morning only family members were allowed to enter. Students danced murga (a popular resistance dance originating from Bolivia spoken earlier about in my blog) Inside there was a photo exhibit and art work of children. After the detention center was closed it was turned into a school. Jail cells and torture chambers became classrooms. On the wall in the back where children played for recess was lined with hooks of where they would chain prisoners. On the same wall laid a hundred of small bullet holes. Families gathered with photos of their loved ones and family members. Around noon we headed back to Cordoba; we ate empanadas for lunch and got together with some other friends. At 6 we met up by the Cañada for the march. Tons of people gathered. NGO´s, families, university students. I gathered with my classmates. For about every five blocks we would crouch down repeating the names of the students followed by “presente!” At the end we would all run tearing through the streets to catch up with the parade. The parade ended with the city gathering in the Plaza de San Martin the masses were incredible. It was a once in a life time experience to participate in.

Darkroom

Film photography has always been seen to me as this raw beauty of an art form; an art form slowly demising due to our technologically developing society. In result I decided to go back to the basics. I picked an old Chinon thirty five millimeter camera and a role of black and white film. It took me nearly three months to finish the role. With film I found myself much more indecisive, the ability to instantly delete a photo when thought to be unsatisfactory was no longer available. At the same time it was most likely for the best.


Jose, started his photography career in 1950, he was 11 years old cleaned the floors of a darkroom studio. Today his carried out his passion for photography by opening up his own school. The two room studio hides away over the plaza de San Martin. The walls fainted paint reflects 1970s puke green. The first time we met I came to inquire about classes. We ended up talking for nearly two hours about photography. The following day I came with my role of film and photographic paper. The first day was spent developing my negatives. Sadly upon their development I found out that my camera had broken somewhere along the process. The role originally had 30 frames, on my 15th the frames images began to overlap as the film would not role. As big as a disappointment that was I still can’t explain to you the excitement of seeing those first 15 photos even if it was only a negative. I was so anxious to start developing that very moment but was faced with the fact that my negatives had to dry for 24 hours. So we called it a day and sat down to drink mate. Students passed in and out to say hello to Jose. I got to meet some very interesting people even a young guy that had worked in the ski resorts in Aspen.

The next day was hot even with the fan. It didn’t help our case that all the windows were closed to shut out the light. Jose helped me measure out the chemicals and place them into their proper bins. I cut various sheets of paper in to small squares to practice exposure times. After exposing my photos on an enlarger what is similar to a slide projector, I began dipping the paper into different chemicals. First the “revelado” for minute and 30 seconds, this is the most exciting moment for me as it is the first time your image appears on paper. Second the “detenido” for about 20 seconds at this point you can expose the picture to white light. Lastly “fijado” be sure that excess liquid are eliminated to ensure that there is no mixture of chemicals. I reproduced my first image three times with different filters increasing and decreasing the contrast. My first photo was a child in the arms of his father that I had taken downtown one day. I’m not going to lie I was overwhelmingly proud by the end of the day. I had always had more respect for film photographers and now it only became justified more.