Alberto Goldenstein (Buenos Aires, 1951), photographer, teacher and curator, is one of the most relevant figures of contemporary Argentine photography. He emerged as an artist with his sensitive, pictorial and spontaneous gaze in the context of the scene that emerged in Buenos Aires around the Rojas Cultural Center in the 1990s. “His work recovers and at the same time reformulates the modern view of cities, that of the solitary photographer, strolling, who in his drifts is amazed by urban forms and captures them with an apparent distance”-wrote Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires.
Curator Carla Barbero points out that another key to reading his work is its de-hierarchization. “His photos express a democratizing ideal of vision, heirs of the American tradition, which has been nodal in his formation as an artist, since he studied in the city of Boston during the early 1980s. But that utopia of not admitting hierarchies is not because he intends to equalize in order to unify or dull the brightness of each thing, but quite the opposite: it is a gesture that amplifies the brightness of the singular without worrying about the canons of beauty that, at different times, have governed taste”.
His iconoclastic approach to photography caused an earthquake in a medium accustomed to seeing itself in black and white and in solemn tones. His use of color, his compositional games, his impossible framings showed a new way of understanding the photographic image, a new possibility of seeing and enjoying its relationships and connections with the other arts. With its visual urgency and poetic emergence, the irruption of Goldenstein’s work paved the way for a new photography in Argentina. Always against the grain, his images are silent signals that mark another possible path in the midst of the contemporary visual noise.
Photography appeared in his life after a world discovery trip he made at the age of twenty-five. On his return, he abandoned his university studies, quit his job and, after a short trip to the USA, decided to settle there for a while. He entered the New England School of Photography in Boston, where he attended workshops with Joel Meyerowitz and a seminar on the History of Photography with John Szarkowsky, curator at MoMA. At this period all his work was in black and white.
In 1984 he returned to Buenos Aires and in the following years he began to develop his work in color. He met the artist Alfredo Londaibere and became involved in the world of visual arts with his colleagues Marcelo Pombo and Jorge Gumier Maier. Between 1986 and 1988 he participated in the photography clinics of the Buenos Aires Cultural Center (now Recoleta Cultural Center), where he had his first individual exhibition in the “Fotoespacio” room directed by Eduardo Gil. That same year, 1991, he presented Tutti Frutti at the Rojas Cultural Center Gallery directed by Gumier Maier and began his teaching work with the first edition of his workshop Imagen Fotográfica, which continued for the next 25 years. Between 1995 and 2019 he directed the Rojas Cultural Center’s Photo Gallery.
In 1997 he showed his series El mundo del Arte at the Fotogalería del Teatro San Martín directed by Sara Facio. Between 1998 and 2001 he exhibited individually at the gallery of the Alliance Française of Buenos Aires and participated in the group show El Tao del Arte at the Centro Cultural Recoleta. In 2001 he produced his series Mar del Plata, the first edition of which was shown in the exhibition Al sur del sur at the Photoespaña 2001 festival, at the Casa de América in Madrid. The following year, he showed the series at the Fotogalería del Teatro San Martín. Between 2004 and 2008, he had solo exhibitions at Ruth Benzacar Gallery in Buenos Aires. In those years his works entered the collections of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba), Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Museo Nacional Castagnino de Rosario. In 2013 he presented Americanas at Foster Catena Gallery in Buenos Aires.
In 2018 the first retrospective of his work was inaugurated at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, La materia entre los bordes, curated by Carla Barbero and accompanied by a book-catalog. He has also had solo exhibitions at the Museo Castagnino + MACRO and in galleries and museums in Mexico, Madrid, Berlin and Zurich. In 2022 he received the Konex Award for Merit in Photography.