"La Petro": a handmade minutera camera in Río Cuarto
This story really hit home for me, because it brings together analog photography, craftsmanship and family memory. In Río Cuarto, Córdoba, photographer Gerardo González spent a year building his own minutera camera, which he named "La Petro", and he's using it to bring this technique back to the city's plazas.
For anyone unfamiliar with it, minutera photography lets you take, develop and hand over a picture in just a few minutes, all inside the camera itself and right in front of the person being photographed. González got curious about the minuteras he kept seeing on social media and in films, and got in touch with a photographer from La Pampa who works with a similar camera originally brought over from France. Working from a set of plans, he put the pieces together one by one, taking great care with the wood cuts so no light could get in.
The name is a tribute: his grandfather, whose surname was Petrocelli and who was known as "El Petro", was an amateur photographer who developed his own prints at home.
The best part is the encounters the camera is bringing him. Many older locals come up to tell him they remember the old minuteros of Parque Sarmiento. One man arrived with his two grandchildren and told him he treasures a photo of himself with his own grandfather, taken when he was 5 or 6; he wanted to recreate the scene so he could leave them the same memory.
What stays with me is the idea behind it all: in contrast to the instant gratification of the phone, here the waiting is part of the experience. The "La Petro" exhibition can be seen at the Espacio Cultural Franklin Arregui Cano, in Río Cuarto's Municipal Palace.
Source: Puntal
For anyone unfamiliar with it, minutera photography lets you take, develop and hand over a picture in just a few minutes, all inside the camera itself and right in front of the person being photographed. González got curious about the minuteras he kept seeing on social media and in films, and got in touch with a photographer from La Pampa who works with a similar camera originally brought over from France. Working from a set of plans, he put the pieces together one by one, taking great care with the wood cuts so no light could get in.
The name is a tribute: his grandfather, whose surname was Petrocelli and who was known as "El Petro", was an amateur photographer who developed his own prints at home.
The best part is the encounters the camera is bringing him. Many older locals come up to tell him they remember the old minuteros of Parque Sarmiento. One man arrived with his two grandchildren and told him he treasures a photo of himself with his own grandfather, taken when he was 5 or 6; he wanted to recreate the scene so he could leave them the same memory.
What stays with me is the idea behind it all: in contrast to the instant gratification of the phone, here the waiting is part of the experience. The "La Petro" exhibition can be seen at the Espacio Cultural Franklin Arregui Cano, in Río Cuarto's Municipal Palace.
Source: Puntal
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