Photography in Caras y Caretas magazine in Argentina (1898-1939): technical innovations, profesionalization and current images

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the kind of images published in the Caras y Caretas magazine between 1898 and 1939, reconstruct the debates that took place about the publication and the changes that it boosted in the contemporary press. In the early twentieth century there were profound changes in the press of Argentina that included the gradual incorporation of photographs. The technological development and the interest in providing visual appeal in newspapers and magazines were the two mainstays that encouraged the use of photographs, which allowed these media to expand their audiences by incorporating new readers. The possibility of publishing a greater number of increasingly clear images produced a revolution in the way events were transmitted. “Caras y Caretas” was the first media in Argentina that incorporated the photograph in a massive and systematic way and created a stable group of photographers that covered the current political, national and international facts, setting the backgrounds of the development of the national photojournalism. The journal recorded social, scientific and cultural events that showed the signs of national modernization along with the political conflicts that derived from that process. This massive use of images and the generated attraction and new sales strategy, brought to the journal the criticism of an enlightened elite that associated the insertion of photography with the “vulgarization” of journalism.