Adriana Lestido

On the occasion of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of uninterrupted democracy in Argentina, Pinta BAphoto invites us to revisit our near past and to reflect on the present through the photographs of Adriana Lestido.

The tour begins with the mythical photograph Mother and daughter of Plaza de Mayo (1982). 

The piece became an iconic photograph in the field of human rights, and a banner of the struggle, power and strength of Argentine mothers in our collective imagination. The work is a constituent part of the memory of our country. It is a photo that carries the loudest sound of all: that of a mother demanding justice and claiming for her son. 

The common thread of this exhibition is the mother-child bond. In recent years, and as a result of the new feminist wave, the debates on what is understood by maternity have broadened. Lestido addresses different aspects of this theme, based on various photographic essays that she has carried out since the beginning of the 1980s. By interweaving the photographic series in the gallery, the result is a series of authentic and diverse works on maternity, which move away from the sugar-coated discourse. With her direct and testimonial photos, she conveys the conflicts, the symbiosis of motherhood, the mother's need, the daughter's need, the naked bodies, the intimacy and the desolation.

Lestido is an outstanding figure of contemporary Argentine photography. She is characterized by her work in black and white in a documentary style, approaching the subjects she photographs in an intimate and dramatic way. With her eye, she captures the small gestures, the subtle movements of the body. She portrays her characters performing everyday actions, far from forced poses and scenographic environments.