Argentina is a unique and captivating land: vast and beautiful, complex and contradictory.
Its extraordinary landscapes encompass soaring peaks, endless plains, glaciers, and salt flats, punctuated by cosmopolitan cities, while its people — indigenous, European, and others — together forged a singular, enigmatic spirit. Like many nations, its history is marked by moments of struggle and triumph, brutality and hope, creativity and resilience. Yet through it all, its spirit endures: a country at once complicated and magnetic, that has captured the eyes and hearts of countless photographers.
1. El Obelisco, C. 1960 – Sameer Makarius
Born in Egypt and shaped by a cosmopolitan life across Europe before settling in Buenos Aires, Sameer Makarius played a central role in establishing photography as an art form in Argentina. His images of the capital from the 1950s and 60s showcase his modernist eye: bold compositions, sharp contrasts, and a keen sensitivity to the urban landscape. In El Obelisco, he turns to the city’s most iconic monument — built in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Buenos Aires’ founding — a soaring white structure rising at the intersection of its busiest avenues.
Much more than an architectural landmark, it has become a symbol of national pride and civic identity, a gathering place for protests and celebrations. Makarius’s framing underscores both the monument’s imposing presence and its dialogue with the city’ pulse, distilling Buenos Aires into a single, timeless image.
2. Gauchos, El Calafate, Patagonia, 2011 – Jimmy Nelson
The gaucho is an enduring symbol of Argentina’s rural heritage. Emerging in the 18th and 19th centuries, these skilled horsemen of the Pampas (vast grasslands) are known for their pride, resourcefulness, and deep connection to the land, and played a key role in the country’s history, from cattle herding to participating in the wars of independence.
In this striking image by world-renowned British artist Jimmy Nelson, a gaucho stands among the plains of Patagonia with his white steed and wooden cart, the dramatic mountain peaks rising in the background. The composition has a painterly quality, typical of Nelson’s mastery, who captures the pride, strength, and timeless spirit of this unique culture, a fitting tribute to a tradition that continues to shape Argentina’s identity.
– Read our profile on Jimmy here.
3. Perito Moreno Glacier, Santa Cruz Province – Chrysanthi Ha
Located in Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina’s southern Patagonia, the Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the world’s most striking natural landmarks. Stretching over 30 kilometers in length and towering 70 meters above Lake Argentino, it is one of the few glaciers in the world that is still advancing, creating periodic ice ruptures that draw visitors from around the globe. Its sheer scale and dramatic appearance — like a towering wall of ice — make it both a geological marvel and a symbol of Patagonia’s rugged landscapes.
In this striking image, photographer Chrysanthi Ha captures the glacier beautifully, its massive, angular form rising from the vivid blue waters below, dwarfing the nearby boat, while the dark, windswept steppe stretches into the distance. The composition emphasizes the glacier’s otherworldly beauty, its jagged surface and immense scale rendered with dramatic clarity, engenders a sense of awe, transforming a natural landmark into a monument to Patagonia’s raw, elemental power.
4. Matilde Mellibovsky. Mother of Plaza de Mayo
Between 1976 and 1983, Argentina endured the Dirty War, a period of military dictatorship marked by widespread state terrorism. Thousands of citizens were forcibly disappeared, imprisoned, or killed for their political beliefs, leaving families desperate for answers and justice.
This poignant photograph captures Matilde Mellibovsky holding a photo of her daughter Graciela, an economist and revolutionary Peronist activist who was disappeared on September 24, 1976, during Argentina’s dictatorship. After Graciela’s disappearance, Matilde joined the Jewish human rights movement and became a founding member of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, participating in weekly protests demanding justice. Her activism was instrumental in documenting the personal anguish of families affected by the dictatorship.
The image, and the mothers’ ongoing struggle, serve as a powerful reminder of a dark chapter in Argentina’s history, symbolizing both grief and resilience. Matilde passed away in February 2011 at age 87, leaving a lasting legacy of resistance and memory.
5. Shipping and Docks from Aduana Principal, or Customs House. Buenos Aires, 1915
By 1915, Buenos Aires had become the largest city in South America, home to nearly a fifth of Argentina’s population. Its bustling port was the gateway for trade, commerce, and immigration, connecting the country to Europe and the wider world. The docks, the estuary of the Plata River, and the ongoing improvements to the harbor reflect a city rapidly modernizing, while the surrounding streets were home to an increasingly cosmopolitan society shaped by waves of Spanish, Italian, German, and British immigrants.
This square image, likely captured on a large-format camera using a glass plate negative and probably later hand-colored — a common technique at the time — offers a fascinating glimpse of the city in 1915. The painted, albeit faded, hues add to the nostalgic quality, providing a visually compelling symbol of a key moment in Argentina’s history, a period that helped shape the country as it is today.
6. Salinas Grande, 2014 – Xavier Roy
The Salinas Grandes are one of Argentina’s most striking natural landscapes, a vast salt flat spanning the provinces of Jujuy and Salta in the country’s northwest, where blinding white salt stretches to the horizon, reflecting the sky and creating an almost surreal, mirror-like effect. This high-altitude plateau, surrounded by mountains and desert, is not only a geological wonder but also a cultural site, used for centuries by indigenous communities.
Captured in 2014 by French photographer Xavier Roy, this black-and-white photograph emphasizes the graphic, textural beauty of the landscapes. The line of salt, winding its way from the foreground, draws the viewer’s eye into the distance, where the dark Sierra de Jujuy hills rise in stark contrast beneath the cloudy sky, enhancing the surreal, almost otherworldly nature of the scenery.
– Read our profile on Xavier here.
7. Buenos Aires – Eduardo Ortiz
Football in Argentina is far more than a sport; it is lived and breathed. No more so than in Buenos Aires, where, in working-class neighborhoods like La Boca, one of the most impoverished in the city football is woven into the fabric of everyday life: played on the streets, watched on screens in densely packed homes, and celebrated on the steep, fiery terraces of the Estadio Alberto José Armando, more commonly known as “La Bombonera”, home of Boca Juniors.
On a worn local pitch, a group of children plays with passion and intensity, hoping to one day follow in the footsteps of their heroes. Eduardo Ortiz, from neighboring Chile, captures the scene perfectly; his expert timing and framing convey the energy, determination, and joy of the young players, freezing a moment that embodies the love the country has for the sport.
– Read our profile on Eduardo here.
8. Suipacha y Diagonal Norte, Buenos Aires, 1936 – Horacio Coppola
Horacio Coppola (1906–2019) is one of the most significant figures in modern Argentine photography, whose work immortalised daily life in Buenos Aires during the 1930s and 1940s. After studying photography at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he met and later married the German photographer Grete Stern, Coppola returned to Argentina in 1935 and devoted himself exclusively to the medium.
Influenced by his Bauhaus training, Coppola blended modernist formalism with the candid realism of street photography. He emphasized geometric composition, high-contrast black-and-white imagery, and unusual perspectives that render ordinary urban scenes with graphic, almost abstract clarity. At the same time, his images capture the energy of everyday life in the city, creating a timeless record of Buenos Aires at the time, while pushing the boundaries of photographic art.
9. “Patagonia Sunrise”, Cerro Torre, Patagonia – Kah-Wai Lin
Patagonia, the vast southernmost tip of South America shared by Argentina and Chile, is one of the most beautiful places on earth, home to the dramatic peaks of the Southern Andes, glacial lakes, and windswept plains, punctuated by lush forests.
Cerro Torre, with its pointed silhouette capped by a delicate ice mushroom, is one of the area’s most iconic peaks. This image, by US-based Malaysian photographer Kah-Wai Lin, is stunning. Taken from a low angle, it beautifully captures the reflection of the mountain and the sunrise sky on the lake, while the dramatic peak rises in the distance — a fitting tribute to the captivating beauty of Patagonia.
10. Raúl Alfonsín’s assumption of the presidency. Buenos Aires, December 10, 1983 – Office of the President
On December 10, 1983, Raúl Alfonsín became Argentina’s first democratically elected president after nearly eight years of military dictatorship, marking the end of a brutal authoritarian regime. In his inaugural speech, he addressed the nation from the balcony of the historic Cabildo building in Buenos Aires, a site symbolic of Argentina’s early moves toward independence in 1810. Alfonsín’s appearance was met with overwhelming emotion from the vast crowd, who waved flags and celebrated the return of democracy.
It was a powerful moment that ended a dark chapter in Argentina’s history and ushered in a new era of civilian governance, enshrining December 10, 1983, in the country’s collective memory as a symbol of democracy and hope.
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