Constitución Station. Buenos Aires. Circa 1890.

Vintage print. Gelatin silver print. Loose photograph. Dimensions: 18.7 x 29 cm. Verso: Ink stamp in black: "Witcomb - Buenos Aires." Next to it, the number "289" is handwritten in graphite pencil. The work is in good condition. Luis Priamo Collection.

This image shows the prominent Estación Constitución building, the former terminal of the Ferrocarril del Sud (Southern Railway). It was inaugurated in 1865, and the following year it was connected to the second tram line to operate in Buenos Aires—a horse-drawn system, as can be seen in this "en plein air" view, near the streetlamps. At that time, the area in front of the terminal was still a gathering point for traditional carts transporting "the fruits of the land" (agricultural produce) from the interior of the country. The four photographs in this collection, marketed by Witcomb, were taken around 1876 by the renowned Portuguese photographer Christiano Junior. Luis Priamo Collection.

The English photographer Alexander Spiers Witcomb (Winchester, 1839 – Asunción, 1905) lived and worked in Argentina for a large part of his life. His photographic studio and art gallery was one of the most significant in the country.

Around 1878–1880, Witcomb—in partnership with Roberto Mackern—acquired the well-regarded studio that the Portuguese photographer Christiano Junior owned in Buenos Aires. From that point on, he transformed it into the premier photographic firm for the high society of Buenos Aires. The acquisition included C. Junior’s substantial commercial holdings—most notably his valuable archive of glass-plate negatives, which featured famous photographic views of Buenos Aires. These were all produced around 1875 using the wet-collodion negative process, with prints made on albumen paper. The four photographs presented here come from that archive; in these particular prints, they bear the signature of Casa Witcomb itself.

Abel Alexander

President of the Ibero-American Society for the History of Photography