AND THEY POSED

Twenty-three ladies and one gentleman. Buenos Aires. 1930s.

Vintage copy on gelatin silver paper toned in sepia. Measures. Photograph: 11.9 x 18.6. Secondary support in beige cardboard and with a fine perimeter box: 16.3 x 22.2 cm. Advertising printed on the secondary support: lower left border: «Photography "Ideal" / Tucumán 784 / U. T. 31-3674". Lower right border: "Confitería Ideal" / Suipacha 380».

Since its foundation in 1912, the "Ideal" Confectionery has become a meeting point for the upper bourgeoisie of Buenos Aires. The dream of the Galician businessman Don Manuel Rosendo Fernández about that two-story building located in the central street Suipacha 384, came true thanks to the architect C. F. González, who used the noblest materials of the time imported from Europe, such as the luxurious carved boiserie of Slavonian oak, French chandeliers, Czechoslovakian armchairs, marble stairs, bronzes, showcases and beveled mirrors.

Renowned orchestras performed in his hall -including ladies' orchestras- and national and international figures passed through its tables, such as the French actor and singer Maurice Chevalier. The traditional tea ceremony with fine masses usually brought together a public that loved luxury. Meetings of groups of businessmen, professionals, political figures and, especially, exclusively female meetings, have always been common.

The photograph shows us a meeting of very elegant old ladies; ten of them pose in front of their tables and another thirteen do so standing up according to the photographer's precise instructions. Dark furs and elaborate hats are de rigueur on this winter afternoon. The mirrors, the thonet-type chairs, columns and luminaires stand out thanks to the shot of light from the photographic operator's magnesium flash.

Such an important confectionery had, of course, an efficient photographic service at the service of those classic group portraits; to date this function was in charge of "Ideal" Photography -a fantasy name mimicked with its main client- located at calle Tucumán 784 y U.T. 31-3674. This firm would have belonged to Valdéz y Cía.

The title of "23 ladies and a gentleman" summarizes in this remarkable photographic work, that active feminine world of the beginning of the last century, today reconverted into a powerful gender movement.

Abel Alexander

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