( Katherine Dunham Dance Company), Louis Armstrong, the Francini-Pontier duo, American boxer Archie Moore, George Samuel " Sammy " Davis, Jr … There are also photographs of Rita with artists and foreign personalities visiting Buenos Aires, like Nicolas Guillen, The Harlem Globetrotters, and Mary Katherine Dunham. According to the photographer Amateurs: Photos occasionally taken by anyone in any circumstance for ad hoc reasons. They form about 30 % of the corpus and generally have acceptable quality. Professionals: Taken by photographers in studio or in family or scenic contexts, for example, during the shooting of her films and or in her national and international tours. They are about 70 % of the corpus and its quality is excellent. This includes photographs of her elders, who are the oldest in the collection. Identified photographers: Rita was portrayed by four studios in Buenos Aires: A. Castro, Annemarie Heinrich, Henry and Olga Kegahl Maša( wife of Kegahl). There are also works done by casual photographers during her performances: M. Diaz M. and David( both from Santiago de Chile), Luisito and Felix, as well as some given by colleagues like the Afro-Argentinian musician and jazz composer Oscar Aleman, taken by Sivul Wilenski. Some photos of her relatives were made by Leidi and ROVIDA( Montevideo), José Stanchina, Andrade, Maitos, Erivan and Universal( the last three from Mar del Plata). In most cases the authorship was easily determined since the photos are signed or stamped in the front or in the back. A few photographers were also identified by Rita. Unidentified photographers: Many photographs taken by professionals are not signed and the authors could not be identified, above all in the casual photographers of their performances
( including plays and films) and of her participation in events. It happens also in the cases of photographs of their elders taken in studio or in natural setting. Five case studies For the purpose of the research I chose five pieces: two in family context, two of the career. and one imaginary reconstruction of a lost photograph.
Photo 1. Taken by Leidi and ROVIDA in studio( Montevideo, 1875). It is a copy in albumen paper cut with scissors and pasted on a rigid cardboard holder in satin with blue edges. It is in Victoria format( 112 x 75 mm), something not very common according to a personal communication of Abel Alexander. The photo itself does not occupy the entire space of the albumen paper, but a rectangle of 104 x 70 mm, with its top in semicircular arch. On the back Rita wrote with pen " July ". A blurred oval stamp in blue ink reads thus: 21 Calle del Cerro 21: Te [...] gran [...]: Montevideo. It is the full-length portrait of the Afro-Argentine sailor Julio Cabot, the uncle of Rita’ s mother. In the cap you can barely read the ship ' s name: [ ALM ] IRANTE [...]. The Afro- Argentinian newspaper La Broma reported he died in Buenos Aires and his wake was held on August 21, 1882. During a personal interview with Rita on September 3, 2006, in Buenos Aires, she said that Cabot told stories about " the disastrous war of Paraguay, which they had to lose because they didn’ t know the jungle and the heat was exasperating ". The sailor ' s eyes were retouched by the photographer and the year was set approximately by Alexander, who argues that the decoration with rocks in papier maché was some kind of European innovation that the photographic studios in River Plate did not adopt before 1875.
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