Woman Portrait Gallery #2 — April 2024
Eva Contreras
“A Hard Night's Day”
G: When and where did you take this photo?
E: It was a nice summer day in 2020, only weeks before the pandemic and the enigmatic 2-year period that would change everyone's lives. We didn't know it then. Ina certainly didn't know it: she was having fun by the pool in Buenos Aires, a long way from Finland. It was the blue in her eyes matching the blue in the water, and I thought it would end up being a very harmonic tonal range. I had no idea that an aggressive light leak would paint half the picture yellow over my expired Fujicolor 200 film, creating a whole new colour palette that would forever evoke the nuances of summer: the sun, the water, the friendship and the smiles.
G: Why do you like analogue photography?
E: The reason I shoot film instead of digital is not because I like how it looks (which I do, obviously). It is because of the suspense, the surprise, the never-knowing: surrendering myself to chance and chaos.
G: Is there a difference in what femininity means in Argentina and Germany?
E: In Argentina, femininity has become strongly attached to feminism. The feminist movement there is one of the strongest and most organized that I've seen in all the places I have visited. Women are not afraid to step up, speak their minds, and go out in the streets to make their voices heard, to make space for them in a system that has been male-focused for way too long. In Argentina, the movement is solid and bold. I am not saying the system is now right, and the problems have been solved. There is a long way to go. But I have to say, even if I dare not speak about this aspect in Berlin, that the time I spend abroad always makes me feel proud of Argentina and how far we've come as a community.
E: It was a nice summer day in 2020, only weeks before the pandemic and the enigmatic 2-year period that would change everyone's lives. We didn't know it then. Ina certainly didn't know it: she was having fun by the pool in Buenos Aires, a long way from Finland. It was the blue in her eyes matching the blue in the water, and I thought it would end up being a very harmonic tonal range. I had no idea that an aggressive light leak would paint half the picture yellow over my expired Fujicolor 200 film, creating a whole new colour palette that would forever evoke the nuances of summer: the sun, the water, the friendship and the smiles.
G: Why do you like analogue photography?
E: The reason I shoot film instead of digital is not because I like how it looks (which I do, obviously). It is because of the suspense, the surprise, the never-knowing: surrendering myself to chance and chaos.
G: Is there a difference in what femininity means in Argentina and Germany?
E: In Argentina, femininity has become strongly attached to feminism. The feminist movement there is one of the strongest and most organized that I've seen in all the places I have visited. Women are not afraid to step up, speak their minds, and go out in the streets to make their voices heard, to make space for them in a system that has been male-focused for way too long. In Argentina, the movement is solid and bold. I am not saying the system is now right, and the problems have been solved. There is a long way to go. But I have to say, even if I dare not speak about this aspect in Berlin, that the time I spend abroad always makes me feel proud of Argentina and how far we've come as a community.
Context
