Book A voyage to the Southern Argentina through the Panoramic Photography - PATAGONIA

About my book
A voyage to the Southern Argentina through the Panoramic Photography
PATAGONIA
The natural scenery of Southern Argentina, and particularly of Patagonia, is the ideal setting to be captured using panoramic photography.
Technically speaking, we can obtain wide images using either a subject in the foreground or just the scenery that unfolds before our eyes and in both cases these images reflect with absolute fidelity the surroundings to be captured.
An ordinary farm gate can acquire dimension and nostalgia when shown in its setting and ambiance. The cattle spread out in the extended Pampa plains, the image of thousands of sheep covering the side of a hill, an enormous iceberg that broke off from the Upsala glacier, two Patagonian farm laborers in the foreground sitting astride their fully clad mounts, and so on, fill the pages of my book from face to face.
One of the most interesting and impressing panoramic photographs in my book is the one of a forest by Lake Burmeister, in the F. P. Moreno National Park. In that area, wind blows nonstop all day long, all year round. At times, the wind blowing is so strong that it makes trees and their foliage vibrate, in constant movement.
To take a picture of the scene, I used a bag full of stones to hold the tripod and prevent it from moving. With Lucy, my wife, we held the camera and the tripod to keep them still and secure. I was eager to transmit such movements of nature in a panoramic photograph.

In Patagonia, the sound of the wind, the creaking of a glacier and the clatter of its icequakes will make us not only look at nature, but also hear it.
The prize awarded at the Contemporary Art Biennial Exhibition in Florence, Italy, the exhibitions in USA, México and Spain and in Buenos Aires, have all contributed to strengthen Javier Goliszewski’s words for me to make the book. After lengthy and hard selection work, 82 panoramic photographs were chosen to be published and constitute a book which, because of its characteristics, consists solely of panoramic photographs and negatives 6,9cm long: a true voyage through Southern Argentina and particularly through Patagonia.
An index indicates the title and location of each photograph. And, at the end of the book, a travel album shows that in addition to the magnificent sceneries of nature, we may enjoy the warmth, candor and kindness of the people of Patagonia who at all times make us feel at home.
Alberto Gandsas
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On Wednesday April 23rd 2003, in the Victoria Ocampo Room, during the 29th International Book Fair held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the presentation of Alberto Gandsas’s book took place with the introduction and comments of journalist Horacio de Dios:
“A voyage to the Southern Argentina through the Panoramic Photography”
PATAGONIA
Following a presentation by Jaime Smart, from Editorioal GAC, Grupo Abierto Comunicaciones, Horacio de Dios said a few words:
Brief summary of the introduction delivered by Horacio de Dios:

«To go through this fair is to turn true the dream of a kid who is fond of books.
I am talking in first person because ever since a child I have never found a better source for learning, in time and space, than a hard copy edition. Citing Borges, once again, he imagined Paradise in the form of a library. Because times change (and books too) the essential is visible in the light of time. An example of the present situation is the remarkable amount of publications on Patagonia. I do not recall a Fair in which so many works, bearing such quality, have been presented on this region. We are recovering texts which were only available in English or French and are now translated into Spanish. And classics, which had been sold out are now being printed again after many years of unavailability. Also, there are plenty of very appealing new books, with a special accent on those specialized in photographs, Patagonia being the photogenic theme. These books are ideal for traveling by means of our imagination while our eyes run through full color pages. They look luxurious due to their being printed on glossy illustration paper and the care put into their publication, yet their price is most reasonable.

Patagonia is more than what our eyes can reach; therefore, we must turn around to take it all in. With our cameras we only capture a fragment of reality which we later complete with our memories. We need to add comments on every image, turning our pictures into a familiar audiovisual scene. In this work by Alberto Gandsas, "A photographic trip to the Southern Argentina through the Panoramic Photography”, published by GAC, Grupo Abierto de Comunicaciones, the word “panoramic” did not call my attention at first because it is usually used when referring to landscape. I was not aware of the fact that panoramic photography is a discipline which implies the use of a special camera that takes in more than the human eye. Contrary to the norm, when the viewfinder of the camera takes in less than our peripherical vision and we try to focus on what we are most interested in.
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