Limits and paradoxes of a press photograph: analysis of a photo of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo during the military dictatorship in Argentina

Abstract

This article addresses the story of a photograph that was used as a symbol of a possible reconciliation between the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the military dictatorship in Argentina. On October 5, 1982, eight human rights organizations jointly called for a mobilization to demand the return, alive, of the detained and disappeared. That day a photograph was produced that appeared to show a hug between a policeman and a mother. The photograph had immediate media significance and was used to support a supposed policy of reconciliation between human rights organizations and the repressive forces, which in reality never existed. In turn image’s uses and interpretations allow us to analyze both the limitations and the possibilities of press photography when constituting itself as evidence and at the same time as a symbol of an event. The controversial nature and the success in journalistic and photographic terms places this image as a privileged object of study to analyze the relationship between dictatorship, media and photography as well as to reflect on the capacity of an image to dispute the historical meaning of a fact and to influence the public opinion.