One day the phone rang in the house peter ross Was the leading photographer of Argentine art and a powerful image bank in North America Getty. They wanted to buy his archives, but Pedro did not even want to listen to financial offers that were supposed to be significant. He made up his mind and finished early. “This is ours. It’s from here,” he says happily now. Because I am confident that my legacy will remain as a national heritage. Yesterday, an agreement was signed to protect the negatives of all images taken around the Art and Communication Center (CAyC) by the National Archives (AGN) and the digitization carried out by the Proa Foundation. Thirty years were the golden age of Argentine art.
CAyC was a pioneering space in the fusion between art, technology, and experimental thinking. Pedro witnessed and treasured footage of artist performances, exhibitions, parties, conferences, and meetings, including: Federico Klemm, Marta Minuhin, Alberto Heredia, Antonio Berni, Clolindo Testa, Gyula Kosice, Yuyo Noe He continues to take photographs to this day, and his sets are priceless historical gems. There are 70 boxes of black and white negatives, photographic prints, slides, glass plates and contacts. Its preservation and free access to researchers, artists, and students is now guaranteed.
“They offered me money, but I didn’t take it. I disagree with many other people who have sold files to the US. It doesn’t seem fair to me,” Ross told LA NACION, confident that she had the support of her children for this generous decision.
Four years ago, Roth’s work was stuffed away in a closet. 59 boxes and references. Now it is in one of them 30 km AGN shelf (This is the unit of measurement for files). Everything is categorized, clean and orderly, and you can find more inside. 8000 negatives Thanks to our efficient catalog you will get the photos you want.
Proa’s contributions were management, organization, and financing. The meticulous (and labor of love) work they did Ana Clara Giannini and Maria D’Ambrosio, Every Wednesday for 4 years. First, they took one of these boxes to Proa to digitize and organize it, attempting to create a caption for each negative frame. The following Wednesday, Giannini picks Ross up at a bar, where he has breakfast with his colleagues from the Estrella del Oriente artist collective, and then heads to Proa. There, they looked at each photo together, and Pedro corrected the identifications, anecdotes, and a few confidential stories, and the day ended with a lunch on the Foundation’s terrace, just the two of them savoring it. Only Pedro can identify locations, characters, dates, and exhibitions at a glance.
“While digitization was a large part of the work, the main contribution to this project was Pedro Ross himself, without whose participation this project would not have been possible, not only as a producer of images but also as a witness to all these events,” says D’Ambrosio, an archivist who also works at the Helft Collection of the Clolindo Testa Foundation and other private archives. He was called up by Proa in 2022 to support Giannini’s project. coordinator. The result is a hard drive that stores data bit by bit. 8,000 negatives, 315 search subtopics, 77 documented events and exposures.
“The registration of this documentary collection is a milestone, as it is the first time that an artist associated with Pedro has decided to deposit his documentary collection with the AGN. It is also the first time that we are doing this in cooperation with other institutions, and we were able to make this entry in a very professional manner, as we are able to talk to the donors for the archivists and thus reconstruct the context in which the documents were produced,” said Rocío Caldenti, Coordinator of the Photographic Documentation Department. AGN’s. To commemorate this event, an exhibition was held to display copies of the newly received negatives.
“We believe that we are working with a great history and contributing with a small grain of sand, but also providing generosity that allows us to continue our work,” Proa President Adriana Rosenberg said at the agreement signing event. AGN will become the owner of all negatives, but management and distribution will continue to be in the hands of: The Ross family, father and son, Damien and Matthias.
Before signing, Mr. Ross also said: “Thank you for accepting the donation. I feel that everything I donate is part of the history of Argentine art, and it is essential that this is recorded and that everyone is part of it. I feel part of that family, which is the history of Argentine art. When I go to the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) I feel at home, and when I go to Proa I feel at home.”
“We told him National Art Career Award. He created the character Pedro Los, a man with a painful history of exile, who became a symbol of Argentine culture. your life is your work. “Like Peralta Ramos, Pedro was his own invention,” he commented. MNBA director Andres Duprat said: Attendance status and other reference materials Eleonora Jaureguiberry, coordinator of Malva Puertos. Gallery owners Mauro Herlicka and Maria Casado. Manager Julia Converti. Espigas Foundation President Maria Ines Justo Borga and Art Pavilion Director Cecilia Kavanaghamong others.
“It gave me great pleasure one day on December 10, 2024, to read in La Nación that Pedro had visited the archive and, after touring it, decided that it was the best place to keep this kind of collection,” he said. Mr. Emilio Perina, Director of AGN. “It is through private donations that we have made this archive the largest documentary collection in Argentine history, adding topics not provided by the state to compose a more complete social and political history,” he said.
Having completed the move from its old headquarters to a brand new Rondeau 2270, AGN is now focused on tackling an archive that has been forgotten for 60 years. Whitcomb CollectionArgentina’s oldest photographic archive. Perina explains in detail. “It was in a basement that was flooded. It was said to have 350,000 panes of glass, and now it’s estimated there are 400,000. That’s the theme of the archive, the dimension of everything. Ultimately, the archive is meant to illuminate our past, serve our present, and build our future.”
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