En Negro y Blanco - Living Memory
Collectif de photographes argentins
From the time we come into this world, our eyes register the images all around us. We grow up using our five senses; and our vision puts the reality of our surroundings into proportion, producing unique and personalized feelings – shadows, tenderness, fear, disquiet, anguish, pleasure. They are the images that invade our psyche. What value they hold in giving a sense and a context to our lives. But the wonder of it all is to be able to express them, as do painters or photographers. Some use their hands and brushes to produce their art, others a camera into which they place their hearts and minds to capture the decisive moment of a story. That is why it is so important that the photographs in this exhibit, a document of the recent history of Argentina, serve to engrave that sensitivity into the fresh eyes of those who see them. It is a fantastic way of relating, without words, that which we should never forget or should simply archive in the drawer of memories. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have spent long years walking the path of not forgetting, of the records of a battle that began for each of us at a precise time one day; the kidnapping of a son or daughter, or even a newborn child or one about to be born.
Preview
We are asked how, after so many years, we remember those moments of uncertainty, pain and fear, how we reacted in the face of not knowing what to do. And, of course, in this act of remembering, many images appear, undocumented by the lens. Only our memory can record them. As time goes by, we can count on the photographic or film images of many events that were committed by the depraved actors of a State of Terrorism. Scenes of kidnappings and murder, raids and assaults on victims in their homes, women in white kerchiefs marching in the Plaza de Mayo, the arms, the tanks, the horses, the dogs of intimidation and the threat against women, who, in peace, pleaded for their loved ones. The arrival of democracy was also documented in this same plaza when thousands of Argentines celebrated the overthrow of the genocidal beasts. The people raised one flag in unison, to the victory of liberty. Much later, a unified and exemplary judiciary brought the cruelest actors of genocide to the dock of the accused; and the flashlights of photojournalists recorded their faces, petrified, immovable, ironic and sober. We have now had more than 21 years of governments elected by the people, during which time images have been made of all of those transcendent events of this new part of a history that we must live: to reconstruct a fallen country, to shore up the morale of its people, to eradicate impunity and corruption, to create a photographic reference for our youth. Much needs to be done, but we are on well on the road. And along this road there are those who give the best of themselves to reach that objective. Photojournalists Alejandro Reynoso and Pablo Cerolini deserve our congratulations and gratitude, because, with these images, they accompany us and are committed to the battle that the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been fighting for more than 28 years. And beyond that, they are making a commitment to present and future generations by keeping the Memory alive.
Estela B. de Carlotto, President, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo
