Enigmatic photos of growing up in Buenos Aires
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Alessandra Sanguinetti, courtesy the artist and MACK Books
In 1999, Magnum Photos member Alessandra Sanguinetti, then 28, was working on a project about the relationship between people and animals on a farm in Buenos Aires, not far from where her cousins, Guille and Belinda were spending the summer.
After being diagnosed with a chronic condition, Sanguinetti gravitated towards her cousins, who were then nine, taking refuge in the world of childhood imagination in the countryside. Instinctively, Sanguinetti began capturing photographs and videos of the girls enjoying the creative escapades of youth.
“I’m sure it was no coincidence that nine was my favourite age and my favourite place to be was in the country. I’ve always had a yearning to go back,” says Sanguinetti, who lived in Argentina from the age of two to 32.
Although she did not begin taking these photographs with a project planned, one eventually started to develop. The result is a mesmerising glimpse into the experiences that shaped the girls’ lives as they came of age.
“In Argentina, the countryside has this mythological figures and heroes and they are the gauchos – the equivalent to the cowboys – and they have all these special clothes they wear to parties and celebrations,” Sanguinetti says.
“Women don’t have any kind of special clothing, except if they reenact historical figures… I remember when I would photograph Guille and Belinda at rodeos, I felt a kind of satisfaction to be zeroing on them when everything was about the men.”
Recognising the need for more complex, layered stories of young girls lives, Sanguinetti published The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams (Nazarelli Press) in 2010 to critical acclaim. A decade later she returns with the companion volume, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (MACK), which documents Guille and Belinda’s transition from adolescents to young women, eventually becoming mothers themselves.
“I had the privilege of being very close and also being able to step away and look at them from afar, which I don’t have with my own daughter. I know them intimately, but at the same time I can see patterns and connect the dots,” Sanguinetti says. She says that the project is ongoing and something she hopes to continue throughout Guille and Belinda’s lives.
“With the videos and conversations I recorded, I started to see how the things they said that they were afraid of, or fantasised about, became realised later on. Or, how they couldn’t escape certain things in their personality or upbringing.”
“A lot of self-prophecies were coming through,” Sanguinetti reflects. “You don’t get the chance to do that unless you take a lot of time.”
The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer is out now on MACK Books.
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
The last days of St Agnes Place, London’s longest ever running squat
Off the grid — Photographer Janine Wiedel spent four years documenting the people of the Kennington squat, who for decades made a forgotten row of terraced houses a home.
Written by: Isaac Muk
How Japan revolutionised art & photography in the ’60s and ’70s
From Angura to Provoke — A new photobook chronicles the radical avant-garde scene of the postwar period, whose subversion of the medium of image making remains shocking and groundbreaking to this day.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Artifaxing: “We’ve become so addicted to these supercomputers in our hands”
Framing the future — Predominantly publishing on Instagram and X, the account is one of social media’s most prominent archiving pages. We caught up with the mysterious figure behind it to chat about the internet’s past, present and future, finding inspiration and art in the age of AI.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The lacerating catharsis of body suspension in Hong Kong
Self-Ferrying — In one of the world’s most densely packed cities, an underground group of young people are piercing their skin and hanging their bodies with hooks in a shocking exploration of pain and pleasure. Sophie Liu goes to a session to understand why they partake in the extreme underground practice.
Written by: Sophie Liu
What we’re excited for at SXSW 2026
Austin 40 — For the festival’s 40th anniversary edition, we are heading to Texas to join one of the biggest global meetups of the year. We’ve selected a few things to highlight on your schedules.
Written by: Huck
In photos: The boys of the Bibby Stockholm
Bibby Boys — A new exhibition by Theo McInnes and Thomas Ralph documents the men who lived on the three-story barge in Dorset, giving them the chance to control their own narrative.
Written by: Thomas Ralph
