TQBA: Tango Queer Buenos Aires (Souvenir Edition)

by Kevin Carrel Footer

“TQBA: Tango Queer Buenos Aires” is my celebration of the people who created the queer tango scene in Buenos Aires.

Please note that this version is the souvenir edition, a 10cm x 10cm mini edition with a sample of 18 photos of my favorite photos from the original book. This little book makes a wonderful gift.

For a description of the full book or to buy it, go here: https://www.kevincarrelfooter.com/books/tqba/

TQBA: Tango Queer Buenos Aires is my celebration of the people who created the queer tango scene in Buenos Aires. First and foremost among them are Mariana Docampo and Augusto Balizano of Tango Queer and La Marshall respectively. They built the beautiful spaces to which dancers flocked night after night and they created that warm and welcoming heart that is Tango Queer.

I did not set out, at first, to document Queer Tango. Rather, I went to participate. I went to dance, to feel, to express myself, to bask in the freedom of the close embrace, to explore. However, as a photographer I would often have my camera in my bag and sometimes, when I was moved and content to take a break from dancing myself, I took photographs.

In that way, this project was born haphazardly. But also in an absolutely authentic and personal way. These photos happened because what was occurring on the dance floor or in my heart was so beautiful that I had to try and capture it, to hold it a little longer.

As the years have gone by I have come to value more and more what I witnessed, to see it as something momentous but also as something fragile that needed nurturing and daring. Mariana and Augusto created those spaces. Others came and filled them with incredible moments of tenderness and beauty. What they started has now, like a precocious child, spread far beyond them, been taken up by so many others, and has changed the world we live and dance in.

It is something to remember and to celebrate.

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