There are photographs that have portrayed controversial personalities or that presented unique events, and that resignified over time representing a time climate. The image of the news cover in which María Julia Alsogaray poses dressing a cover against the camera transcended, and 35 years later became a symbol of the most notorious political frivolity in the 1990s. So much so, that it continues to generate controversies despite the passage of the decades.
The Menem miniseries, directed by Ariel Winograd for Amazon Prime Video, revived that moment. In fiction, the daughter of the leader Álvaro Alsogaray, personified by Monica Antonópulus, is a central figure in the plans of the president, being carried by the same president to explore a more feminine and emotional facet, leaving aside the conservative personal structure instilled by his father. The turning point for that character would be the publication of that cover photo.
The truth is that Reality exceeds fiction and the memory of how the portrait of María Julia is achieved continues to generate controversies. Various versions about what the story was behind that photographic production of July 22, 1990 that illustrated the note entitled “Reina but does not govern. María Julia and her ‘romance’ with the president” raised a media round trip. On television, Graciela Alfano said that the cover that the former menemist official wore was her; But Susana Giménez denied her pointing out that the coat was his, and that the exmodel was not even when taking the image.
Osvaldo Dubini was the creator of the image. That was not the first photo in which she portrayed the leader of the UCEDE. Years before He had covered Maria Julia’s marriage with Francisco Erize, an environmentalist who directed the Silvestre Vida Foundation. With a trajectory as a graphic reporter that dates back to the presidency of Frondizi, the photojournalist put his eye and shot with his lens to the Antel inspector in an impromptu room of the mountain hotel located in Las Leñas. Even, en an incredible coincidence with the series, the profile photojournalist had made the coverage of the presidential caravan of the Riojan governoras did the character of presidential photographer Olegario Salas, played by Juan Minujin.
According to Dubini, Susana Giménez and Graciela Borges were present a moment prior to the session, and it was the protagonist of “La Ciénaga” that offered the cover of skin. “Susana and I went to ski the Leñas and we had a leather coat, which at that time was fashionable. Susana had a black fox coat, and I was beige. María Julia kindly asked us if we lent her the covered to take photos,” the actress recalled in dialogue with news. The truth is that Dubini chose the clearest coat to be used on the lid and the dark belonging to Giménez appears in another of the shots included inside the pages that illustrated the note.
“They told me that I had to travel to the Leñas along with a journalist (Alejandra Albanesi). I knew I had to take some photographs to María Julia with an appearance of queen, but only that. I wasn’t aware of anything. When we arrived I saw that there was a crown and other ornaments. I was not going to put these things to María Julia. He was very Chabacanas. ”Dubini recalled to the questions of this chroniclerand pointed out: “I had only half an hour to take the photos. I take some photos in the snow near her room.Ermino and we could relax a little, drinking coffee. She told me that Susana Giménez had told her to stay calm because I took good photos. ”
The recommendation of the television diva resulted and Dubini took the opportunity to propose a photographic session more in a very well illuminated hotel room. “She was sitting in the armchair and tells the combs to make a very youthful hairstyle. When I start looking at María Julia with the cover, I indicate that she discovers a little more legs, ”he explained And he explained: “I had suggested taking pictures as if I were an actress, so I ask him to show his shoulders more. But it was seen that he had a shirt underneath. I explain that her shirt bothered and she unbuttoned some buttons. In the end the shirt was still seen, she decided to unbutton all the buttons and that the cover hides any trace. ”
In the midst of production, Susana Giménez and Graciela Borges entered and surprised gave the approval of the pose that the neoliberal leader carried out on the couch. The photographer managed to end his work. At night, rumors about the images were scattered throughout the tourist complex. “Barrionuevo tells me that Quilombo did with the photos, in Buenos Aires they are already aware. Apparently Eduardo Menem was vacationing with his family and somehow learned of María Julia’s photos,” said Dubini And even knowing the disapproval of the president’s brother, the reporter sent on his own the film roll to the Fontevecchia office.
Epilogue. “Each one takes the photo as they want,” said Carlos Saúl Menem to the media before the arrival of the publication to the magazine kiosks, Dubini recalled. Gustavo González, former director of the weekly in his book “News under fire”, wrote: “Although some women of the government also began to look with some suspicion and that from the opposition she received all kinds of criticism, she understood that the aesthetic result well worth that cost. Then I would not think the same, but that week he bought several magazines to give and save. He framed it and hung on the wall of his Petit Hotel and in 2009 he took her to her new domicile, when she was finished off by the mansion after being convicted of illicit enrichment. ”
Dubini and María Julia Alsogaray met again once again in a cocktail of the telephone company at the Plaza Hotel: “I saw her, but I preferred not to approach and continue doing my job from afar. Until at some point she looked at me and approached me. He took my arm and took me to the place where I was talking with leaders and businessmen, and introduced me as the man who took me the famous photo that you all know. “ Retired in mid -2000 and With almost ninety years, when asked how she thinks she felt about that emblematic photograph she had done, Dubini confessed: “She was always grateful.”
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