Agustina Tato’s series is suspended in time, between the death of her mother and the birth of her daughter. In those days, she used to go out to her parents’ garden every full moon, with her father and sister. Her pictures bring those nights to life, and capture people and memories playing hide and seek.
“Sadness melted away when the darkness appeared, the night protected us from our deepest fears”, Tato tells us. The Argentinian photographer rediscovers the garden of her childhood home and its characters in a dream-like atmosphere. She photographs to “construct a different gaze on reality”, to make images, smells and feelings of her childhood reemerge. Inspired by the sensitive gaze of Adriana Lestido and Sally Mann’s reflections on oblivion and the afterlife, Agustina attempts to treasure the transient presence of her beloved ones through this series.
The photographer describes her timeless playground with these words.
“Donde la Luna es Ronda” (Where the moon is a ring of rosies)
There was a night where the wind polished the stars and tendered sleeping birds.
That night my daughter was born.
There was a night in which the arctic ice clouds crashed and the moon left the sky.
That night my mother died.
Trees are carrousels.
Secrets await in their branches.
Two girls, accomplices at their absence, play ring a ring o´roses.
A man takes them far, a huge she-dog hears their dreams.
The other girl awaits for falling stars.
Together they discover that darkness lulls their innocence with its light.
The night protects them.
I lived there.
Images from “Donde la Luna es Ronda” © Agustina Tato
