Photo: Natalia Ariñez, 23 Years Old, Architecture Student (detail), 1999, from the series The Sons and Daughters, Tucumán, Twenty Years Later, Julio Pantoja (Argentine, born 1961). Gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council. © Julio Pantoja.

Comprising three hundred works by sixty artists, this exhibition on Argentina at the Getty Centre examines crucial periods and aesthetic movements in which photography had a critical role, producing—and, at times, dismantling—national constructions, utopian visions, and avant-garde artistic trends.

From its independence in 1810 until the economic crisis of 2001, Argentina was perceived as a modern country with a powerful economic system, a strong middle class, a large European-immigrant population, and an almost nonexistent indigenous culture. This perception differs greatly from the way that other Latin American Countries have been viewed, and underlines the difference between Argentina’s colonial and postcolonial process and those of its neighbors. Early photography is presented alongside contemporary images. The show also reconsiders images commonly accepted as documentary photographs, revealing how they extend personal or institutional ideologies and often political propaganda.

As the title of Contradiction and Continuity suggests, the photographs offer a contradictory, complex look at the modernization of Argentina to the current day, and allow for a more nuanced understanding of both the country’s modern history and the ways in which photos construct and perpetuate points of view.

Website: https://www.getty.edu/visit/cal/events/ev_1728.html