Photographing Childhood, Memory, and Time

It was in 1999, while working on a project photographing farm animals in rural Argentina, that photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti met two girls: Belinda Stutz and Guillermina Aranciaga. Little did Sanguinetti know then how profoundly these two young cousins would shape her life and work.

Belinda and Guillermina, who were 9 and ten years old, saw a woman walking around with her cameras and tripods photographing the animals on their grandmother’s farm. Curiously, they would follow her around, watch her, and eventually convince her to take their pictures.

What started as a playful game turned into a meaningful and intimate collaboration that has lasted more than two decades and has so far resulted in two photobooks.

Sanguinetti, who herself spent her childhood summers on her father's farm in the Argentine countryside, still returns to photograph Belinda and Guillermina, who have long since grown into adulthood and become mothers themselves.

The book The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams (2010)1 follows Belinda and Guillermina for five years, showing them in their small bubble, enjoying carefree lives filled with dress-up games and make-believe, often inspired by their dreams and imagination.

The second book, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (2020)2, continues the story of Belinda and Guillermina, tracing their lives from age 14 to 24. We observe how they both change physically, transitioning from girls to young women. The way they present themselves to the camera has become much more self-aware. The small world we glimpsed in the first book slowly grows larger and changes, while their intimate bond seems to quietly fade as their lives continue.

We witness Belinda becoming a mother at sixteen, with Guillermina following her into motherhood shortly after. While Belinda’s husband remains in the pictures, Guillermina is without a partner, committed to her job as an elementary school teacher.

This body of work is so much more than the story of two girls growing up together in the countryside of Argentina. It is a wonderful reminder of the magical, carefree time most of us get to experience during childhood, and the unstoppable transition from youth to adulthood. Fun and games are gradually squeezed out, replaced by the responsibilities of adulthood.

As you flip through the pages of these books, you can’t help it: these girls really grow on you. The photographs send you back into your own memories: the games you played as a child, the other children on your street, how you first grew close and then, as life moved on, gradually drifted apart from your friends. The first love, the first heartbreak…

But the work does more than awaken personal memories. It also reminds us of the passage of time, the fragility of friendship and life itself, and shows us —in a loving, sometimes funny and sometimes melancholic way— what it means to be human and alive.

If these photographs leave you wanting to know Belinda and Guillermina a little better, I highly recommend a wonderful interview in which they answer questions about the making of the photographs. Seeing them (and their daughters in the background) and hearing them reflect on their long collaboration with Sanguinetti adds another layer to this remarkable body of work.

About the photographer:

Alessandra Sanguinetti was born in New York City in 1968, where she lived for two years before moving to Buenos Aires with her family. There, she lived and worked until 2002 before moving back to the United States. Sanguinetti is an ICP graduate, a member of Magnum Photos, and the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards for her photography. She has published several other photobooks over the years, but the books about Belinda and Guillermina remain her most popular ones.

I began writing about female photographers after standing in front of my bookshelf one day and realising how much my photobook collection was dominated by male photographers.

My aim is simply to share the work of women photographers who inspire my own creative journey, along with their stories and unique perspectives on the world they live—or lived—in.

If you would like to read more, you can find all previous editions here.

That’s all from me this week.

Thank you so much for being here and for taking the time to read this week’s newsletter. It means a lot to me! Feel free to leave a comment – I always love to hear your thoughts.

X,

Susanne

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