Paper short abstract:

Pinélides Fusco was an Argentine photographer during the first two presidencies of Juan Domingo Perón, between 1948 and 1955, author of many of the most emblematic and famous images of the first Peron's government that are still reproduced in books, newspapers and magazines.

Paper long abstract:

The present work intends to analyze the photographic production developed by Pinélides Fusco, an Argentine photographer member of the Press and Dissemination Department, during the first two presidencies of Juan Domingo Perón, from 1948 until the coup of 1955. Fervent Peronist, he was the author of many of the most emblematic and famous images of the first Peron's government frequently reproduced. His performance as a presidential photographer made him a witness and privileged portraitist of significant government landmarks, such as Perón's oath of the new National Constitution in 1949, and of important personal moments of the life of the president and his wife, Eva Duarte ("Evita").

Fusco is the author of images that became icons of Peronism, as the embrace of Perón and Eva in the presidential balcony after the her resignation in 1951 for the Vice Presidency candidacy because of an advanced disease, or her vote from bed a few months before dying, during the elections that inaugurated the feminine vote in Argentina.

The coup d'etat of 1955 put an end to the first Peronist government and the career of Fusco's political photojournalism. Under the proscription of Peronism and the prohibition of possession and reproduction of photographs of Perón and Evita, Pinélides hid all his photographic archive for more than thirty years. There were many offers from national and international institutions to buy that collection, but Fusco always refused: he apologized by saying that he could not charge for a material for which he had already been paid.