by photographer Florencia Blanco
2002 FiftyCrows PhotoFund Winner - Latin America Region

Salta is perhaps one of the oldest, most peculiar, and most distinctive cities in northern Argentina. It is a city with many contrasts. A large percentage of its population is of Inca ancestry, and although Inca culture is still strong and influential, nowadays it has a low social standing. This decline of status has developed gradually since the beginning of colonization by the Spaniards four centuries ago. At present, the mystical aspects of the local culture exist in conjunction with the wild growth of a capitalist economy and the irreversible effects of a loss of identity brought about by globalization. The oldest and most traditional oligarchy of all the country takes refuge in Salta, but poverty spreads over the whole region. Wherever we o, political propaganda shows the ideal family, as white, fair, middle class, a family that is absolutely different from the ordinary family in Salta. The official words say (in their peculiar utopia) that in a promised future, we, the people from Salta, should be “different,” not the way we are but with a better life. If we reach this goal, we will be fair, white, middle class, and so on. If we don’t, we already know. By means of this implicit disqualification, the majority of the province’s population is denied its culture and its way of life.

The goal of Salteños is to capture those moments that best mirror the diversity of the complex people that live in Salta. I want to find the tension between the rich past of this city which went through “good times” and the decline in which it is deeply immersed. I want to show the way in which people from Salta treat and get into contact with others, the way they live, and the way they make their unusual lifestyle valuable and unique.

The final aim is to transform this series into a celebration of every day life, with its contradictions, its dark aspects, and its hyperbolic characteristics. Acknowledging the culture in Salta as live, puzzling, and rich.