Guadalupe Miles

© Guadalupe Miles from the series 'Chaco'

© Guadalupe Miles from the series 'Chaco'

Over the course of the next week or ten days I will be traveling overland from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Bogotá, Colombia. This is a bit of a folly on my part, mostly the result of bad planning and the excessive airfares of the southern hemispheric summer.

Here on this blog I try to relate inspirational experiences of photographs dealing with where ever I happen to be. Since I’m likely to be stuck on a bus and without an internet connection for the time being I decided to write these posts in advance. What follows, then, is an imaginary journey that roughly parallels my own route up the continent, highlighting works that I admire that deal with place I’m to be passing through.

First up is Guadalupe Miles’ marvelous series Chaco. It’s a series of portraits of taken in an indigenous community in the northern Argentine province of Salta. A fellow student in a photojournalism class criticized this work as “demasiado progragonismo.” For me it’s precisely that progratonism and the sense of play in these portraits that make them so beguiling.

6×6 Magic

I’ve noticed a trend with a lot of photography here in Argentina:

© Guillermo Ueno

© Nacho Coló

© Ignacio Iasparra

© Florencia Blanco

Verano Porteño by Eduardo Carrera

Bride by Gaby Messina from the series Lima, KM 100

Esquina by Norberto Salerno, photograph taken with Walzflex TLR with slide film expired in 2000

© Alina Schwarcz, from series Tigre

From Olaguer 3006 © Vivi Abelson

© Emma Livingston

© Alessandra Sanguinetti

© Soledad Manrique

© Guadalupe Miles

© María José D'amico

Let me be upfront and state that I’m not a fan of the square format. There is a preciousness and nostalgia about it that turns me off.

Why all the 6×6 photos in Argentina? Given the high cost of film and cameras here, using medium format seems to convey a level of seriousness that 35mm or digital don’t. Using the 6×6 format is an easy way of calling attention to one’s seriousness, be it with a Hasselblad or a Holga.

I like all of the photos and photographers that I’m posting here. I don’t mean to criticize their work or their choice of using the 6×6 format. There are legitimate artistic reasons for choosing to shoot square format. I should also state that in declaring my general dislike of the square I’m being completely hypocritical, having made any number of square photographs myself.

This trend isn’t limited to Argentina. There’s a group on flickr called 6×6 magic with almost 200,000 photos posted to it. There are enough film borders, soft corners, dreamy black & white landscapes, and desaturated colors to last a lifetime. Need I mention that there’s no “6×7 magic” group?