Edit. ArtexArte de la Fundación Alfonso y Luz Castillo. Buenos Aires. 2020.

Quarto (24 x 17 cm), 252 pp. Paperback publisher binding. Unused copy. Edit. ArtexArte of the Alfonso y Luz Castillo Foundation. Pretéritos imperfectos Collection. Buenos Aires. 2020.

In an approach hitherto unprecedented in our country, Urgente/Emergente offers an overview of the first formal investigations in the preservation of photographic images and the emergence of institutions dedicated to this specialty at the international level, to then focus on the characteristics that said process had in Argentina. From documentary sources and the testimony of its main protagonists, some of the most important initiatives in relation to the rescue and enhancement of the photographic heritage of our country are reconstructed. From the creation of the Graphic Archive of the Nation, the emergence of the Antorchas Foundation and the first Congresses on the History of Photography, to the conservation programs of the National Universities and the creation of the Argentine Radio and Television Historical Archive.

Its pages define the most recurrent problems and political complexities that have led, by action or omission, to the systematic loss of our visual heritage.

Denis Labraga and María Burgos, the authors -both curators specializing in photographic heritage- complement this tour with a toolbox that allows us to address its safeguarding without delay. In this sense, the second part of the book presents a located plan for the conservation of photographs, thought from the survey of the main difficulties that characterize conservation at the local level and the material and professional resources that are currently available.

From history and theory to practice, Urgente/Emergente proposes action strategies to build new alternatives for the future, setting an unprecedented precedent on this issue.