The most emblematic images and the covers of the most important records of Argentine rock have names and surnames: Andy Chernyavsky. On Thursday, December 8, the feature documentary Exposed, by director Eduardo Raspowhich covers the life of the artist, focused on her two passions: photography and music.
In his latest exhibition “La máquina de mira”, which ended the last week of November, he gave a review of his photographic work that goes from the 80s to the present: images that bring together some of the most famous bands in national musical history, since Add to Soda Stereo among others; portraits ranging from Fito Páez and Andrés Calamaro to Fabiana Cantilo and Hilda Lizarazuthrough viruses and Babasónicos, to a room dedicated exclusively to charly garcia.
The artistic producer’s daughter Daniel Chernyavskyfounder of the Center for Arts and Sciences (where international musicians such as Chico Buarque and Santana), had its consolidation by becoming the referential photographer of Argentine rock, both in the covers and on the covers of the records. Charly Garcia, Andrés Calamarowere some proper names that were related both by their profession and personally.
Photo editor for G7 magazine for ten years, she has published two books of photography: “Argentine heart” Y “Charly, a photographic biography of Charly García”. However, his most personal book is the last: “Direct access. Memories of an Argentine rock photographer in the 80s”.
News Magazine: How did the idea of the documentary about your life and work proposed by the director Eduardo Raspo come about?
Andy Chernyavsky: I had a hard time facing the movie after the book. I think it was a story that Eduardo was interested in telling about my life, mixed with rock, mixed with a very difficult adolescence and all the material I have is enormous. Finally, he convinced me. We did it in a pandemic, it was a tremendous job because we had to swab ourselves all the time. I have a large analog archive of all the recitals, of all the shows that I covered in my life, more than 150 album covers, there was also a graphic appeal, beyond the stories and covers of Charly and everything that is my worked.
News: In your book Acceso Directo you introspect your personal life and photography. How did your vocation come about and how did you carry it with your family and your peers?
Chernyavsky: The idea had always been to study psychology. It was all like those random things in life. A friend made me do a three-month basic photography course. After three months she was working as a photographer in the square, and after coming to rock she went hand in hand with Charly. She was in her fourth year of high school, and she was a classmate of Dani García, her brother, although Charly was already hanging around a bit. After a bit of life, I was a girl who lived alone with my younger brother. In the end my brother traveled to meet my mother. There Charly’s mother asked me to put him up at my house, it is a very particular story. He has many seasonings of abandonment, improvement, resilience and I was a big fan of Argentine rock music. My old man brought Santanawas manager of Moris, Manal, Rainbow, Nacha Guevara and when I was little he took me to the first BA rock at the Velodrome. I began to be fascinated by all that music. I got to know Miguel Abuelo at my dad’s theater, which was a multicultural place. There were plays and movies. then in the Arts and Sciences Center I sucked all that and turned to music. And when I had a camera in my hand, the planets aligned. Also, with the confidence of Charly, who gave women a place in rock: Fabi Cantilo, Hilda Lizarazu, Celeste Carballo, Maria Gabriela Epumer and, well, me.
News: How did you live your transformation to the professional field?
Chernyavsky: hand in hand daniel grinbank, who also frequented my house where the Grandparents met. At that time he was a couple Andres Calamaro. we start with Claudio Clota to do a photography studio, things sort of balanced out, and I didn’t stop touring and taking photos. I began to become and feel like a photographer, although the normal thing in my house would be to have a university degree and not a three-month course. But, on the other hand, I felt in my world. She was no longer the daughter of the producer, but the photographer. We were a group of friends with Charly, Seru Giranwas a neighbor of david lebon, we had parties, we traveled and we had that avidity to make productions. It was looking for space to play, take photos and have fun. A great search.
News: How did you live your work as a rock photographer at that time?
Chernyavsky: At that time it was very difficult to take live photos. In the Obras stadium, chairs were flying and things were thrown, it was really a risky profession. But I was a fan, and as long as I was there, I didn’t even earn money, but I was deeply interested in learning and taking live photos. It gave me all those possibilities. Although everything was very precarious, they gave me two rolls of 36 and try to do what you could in a photographic shot, but beautiful things came out. On the other hand, we had the graphic studios of DG Discos and with the new studios above Daniel Grinbank’s offices, the boys signed the contracts, went up and took their photos. There were 200 or 300 photos per day, because in those years you had to send a physical photo to the country’s newspapers.
News: How does it feel to see the images of Argentine rock from the 80s again?
Chernyavsky: I admire that she was convinced that rock was an ideological movement. Then I professionalized with fashion and advertising. Suddenly, my archives come to life, because the 80’s are back, with revision, books, and now with the movie. That material is more active than the rest, I’m still fascinated by doing the other stuff. But something spectacular happens with that decade: it is the beginning of democracy and freedom. Also a cultural change, moving away from the protest song to generate fun songs that talked about other topics and that could be danced to. There was a paradigm shift with Virus, The Twists, Grandparents and Charly accompanying all of them. Photography has that beauty, each job is a new challenge and I continue to live that. A living plot that, each job is a new stitch, and rock is a part of my career, and the one I chose because it represents me.
News: Is the Argentine rock of the 80s and 90s revalued, going from being what it was; a generational tendency to a representative cultural stratum of the country?
chernyavsky Music crossed all borders, wherever you go, the whole world says Soda Stereo or Charly Garcia. All the bands that played in Spain, babasonicos Y phyto. Even the new ones like Getting to know Russia, the truth is incredible and it is beautiful. I think that rock has that seasoning of having lyrics, melodies, harmonies and rhythm, an important message to give, from a romantic, ideological or critical point of view. Now there was a change, what is heard the most is rhythm. Which is not bad if people like it and enjoy it. I don’t know how much of this will be left in 40 years. Time will tell.
News: British photographer Mick Rock claimed he felt he cast rockers as “gods”, did you feel the same way about the legendary musicians you photographed in the 80s?
Cherniavsky: The only god is Charly Garcia and Carlos Gardel. Maybe I thought they were my idols, in the 80s. Today it’s the music I listen to. I do think that Charly García is the boss, that he produced the most iconic records of Argentine rock of the 80s and that he was a genius. But with age, this idolatry thing falls off a bit. Not for anything in particular, but one is growing up, and now the only one I idolize is my daughter.
News: In the documentary you went from being the one holding the lens to being the focused one. How did you feel?
Chernyavsky: a bit the title “exposed”I believed it in relation to that, to the fact that I felt very exposed and in relation to photography. It is a documentary feature film where I am the protagonist together with the photographic works. the music made it Hilda Lizarazu, which is on his new album. But I felt very protected by the director Eduardo Raspo and the producer Luis Sartor. It was valuable work, not only because of the photographs, but also because of the very atypical story that I had to live.
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