FRONTIER PHOTOGRAPHER

Trade interior. Argentina. 1909.

Vintage photography. Silver gelatin contact print and sepia toning. Image measures: 12 x 17.2 cm. Measurements of the white embossed cardboard secondary support: 20.5 x 23.3 cm. Advertising wet stamp in oval format printed in blue ink and located on the lower right edge of the support: "Eloy Salgado / de la casa / P. Bauer y Cía. / Piedras -154 / Buenos Aires". On the same photograph, a handwritten signature of the author in black iron gall ink: "Eloy Salgado - 1909".

In the first decade of the 20th century, the young Argentine Republic was already emerging as one of the emerging powers on the world scene. After the expansion of its agricultural and livestock frontiers, the fertile plains provided the necessary bulk wheat and meat that, frozen, headed for old Europe. This economic boom was reflected in the rapid laying of railway lines and the consequent foundation of towns linked to rural exploitation.

In those towns, the so-called General Warehouses provided almost everything necessary for the life of its inhabitants, from a set of saucepans to a gate, from bedding to seeds. On those shelves, national and imported products were offered, which entered the port of Buenos Aires destined for the large introductory firms of the city of Buenos Aires, which, through the extensive railway network, supplied a multitude of these stores scattered in the new territories. .

In the necessary traction of this oiled mercantile chain, the representatives of those distant Buenos Aires firms were located; Today we enjoy an image taken by Eloy Salgado in his double role as salesman for the firm P. Bauer y Cía and also as an itinerant photographer, in this case documenting one of his regular clients with his travel camera.

With great professionalism, lacking the appropriate light, Eloy Salgado takes a difficult shot of interiors using the large windows at the front of that business as a light source. At a certain distance from his camera, he places the owners and dependents together with the usual parishioners. He thus obtains a panorama of the motley local and its merchandise on display.

Regarding Eloy Salgado's photographic career in the country, we know that he was based around 1906 in the town of Victorica (La Pampa) as part of the Western Pro Railway Commission. In 1909 he documented the visit of the famous Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibañez (1867-1927), author of the book "Argentina y sus Grandezas" (See lot 60) and, in the years 1911/1912, he collaborated with his graphic records in some of the Museum's publications. Argentine Social. He was one of the few photographers who, in addition to placing his own publicity, also stamped his elegant holographic signature and up to the shooting date on each work. Due to his early Patagonian performance, we consider Eloy Salgado to be an authentic Border Photographer.

Abel Alexander

President of the Ibero-American Society for the History of Photography