Fifteenth Birthday

Traditionally the fifteenth birthday party is the presentation in society of the girl
who turns into a woman. It is a "coming out" and it is somewhat archaic in the patriarchal sense. Traditionally, until that moment the girl is not allowed to leave her home. It is starting with her fifteenth birthday that she could go to gatherings and parties. The reason for this rite is to let the neighborhood or social class know that she is now ready to start a courtship leading to the best possible marriage.

This party was part of the procreation cycle, preceding marriage, and even linked to it formally. In the 50's social rites changed, as did dance and love rituals. Then the 60's changed everything and some girls no longer want to have fifteenth birthday parties. Actually, it is no longer a rite of passage.
My idea is to see the meanings of these parties in our culture, and their corresponding produc-tion. I am attracted by the ways in which people assemble their universe. In these parties people account for their complex realities despite the fact that sometimes they supposedly hide in molds. Daily reality suffers the most extravagant mutations. I like to reflect on cultural cons-tructions, and here they are somewhat more obvious than in everyday life. I find much in-formation, and the way in which it manifests itself excites me. It is interesting to see how the fantasies of fairy tales, teenage fantasies and reality commingle.
Boys and girls are halfway through adolescence and I think that by photographing them I may rescue data from that time in the people's live. I also have remembrances from my adolescence and I think that by doing this work I will also be able to find traces of my own from those times.

I think that these parties are in extinction in many circles, and I believe it is interesting to take pictures of what today exists. I believe that perhaps in Argentina, due to the cultural impoverishment, they will flourish. I am not going to use the social stereotype photographic model but I am going to refer to it. In my own way, I photograph things that others build. In my pictures, quite a few people collaborate with their presence, labor, imagination, history. I show realities towards which I have several different feelings. I am interested in making, and having the spectators make, an enriching reading of culture, situations, relations, cons-tructions, tastes, values, desires, actions, etc.

Besides the party the girl will have with her friends, there is a show by the parents. Girls and parents compete for the best party, and the friends of both participate in this competition. I have seen them go to houses better than their own to have their pictures taken. In a place to have pictures taken, there is a piano that is quite out of tune, and girls and parents have their pictures taken besides it. They still
remember that it was socially appreciated that girls knew how to play the piano, and they feign. The birthday party photographer is a very important person, because these people consider the pictures of these events essential.

Regarding her birthday party, a girl said: "I felt I was doing something to belong to society".
It seems that these people have accepted the
concept that it is all right to have these parties, that you are "better" if you do. Taking sacrifice as something positive, because it is for something that I consider worthy, there are here two sacrifices.
One is the social one, because the family spends money and effort to invite friends and acquaintances. The other, darker one, is the girl's own, because she is handed over like the father hands over the bride, even though she really isn't a virgin or has a fiancé, there is a social handing over.
On her birthday, the fifteen year old girl has few possibilities of defense, because she still doesn't quite understand the masculine look nor the feminine one, and hasn't yet mastered the art of seduction, or make up, nor any other art. Sometimes bad posture and dress spoil the girl's looks. By making an effort to shine on the party and be the center of looks, there is a change from the naturalness of daily life.

Florencia Blanco

Florencia Blanco. Born in Montpellier (France) in 1971, lived in Pedro Luro, province of Buenos Aires and a little later in Salta. Studied in the University of Buenos Aires and with Juan Travnik. Worked as photo journalist, camerawoman for television and camara assistant in different films and commercials. In 2000 receives a National Photography Grant from Fondo Nacional de las Artes and an Artistic creation subsidy from the Fundación Antorchas, both to develop a photographic project in the city of Salta, Salteños, which has been shown on various occasions. E-mail: florenciablanco@hotmail.com

Others participants. Research workshop on artistic practice and its social projection