The opening of the Photo Library to the community was complemented by the book launch for "Comodoro Rivadavia - 120 years of photographic stories", at an event hosted by city mayor Juan Pablo Luque and attended by national authorities and Tecpetrol representatives.

At the ceremony, held near the Railway Museum as part of the activities held to celebrate the city’s 120th Anniversary, the first copy of the book was presented to the mayor.

This in-depth interdisciplinary work brings together a fascinating selection of images collected by the Municipal Historical Photo Archives showing life in the early days when the city of Comodoro was founded, to the present day. The coordination of the project was overseen by the Secretary of Municipal Culture, Professor Liliana Peralta, ably assisted by Luis Baum and José Ignacio Tanaka, from Tecpetrol’s Community Relations and Human Resources departments. The project also received the support of the Municipal Historical Archive staff who stepped in to help with research, editing and design. 

Mayor Juan Pablo Luque affirmed that “this is the gift that we felt would be a suitable gesture of recognition of the history of this thriving city… the driving force for demographic growth in Comodoro Rivadavia. A city able to position itself nationwide as the National Oil Capital, which today also shows other equally promising facets for the development of alternative industries." He thanked the company for all the collaborative work it undertook to help recover and preserve memory, a way of recognizing the path traveled as well as of projecting a common future.

Daniel Sauthier, the Director of Conventional Southern Cone Region, applauded the effort made by all the parties involved to work together in recovering vital parts of the region’s history, making it available to new generations of inhabitants. “Keeping the city’s historical achievements alive, celebrating the highs and lows that marked people’s daily lives, is the responsibility of all of us who have ever lived in Comodoro Rivadavia. This is clearly a land of opportunities, and the anniversary is an excellent moment to raise these achievements out of oblivion and share them.”

"Comodoro Rivadavia - 120 years of photographic stories" is organized into three sections reflecting the three main periods of urban development: 1901 to 1955 "From port and oil town to capital city”, then 1955 to 1983 "In search of political stability” and finally, 1983 to 2021 "The sustained growth of a city".  To quote Professor Peralta, "each reader will find in these streets the paths walked by their ancestors... An enthralling search for the traces left by the passage of time, an opportunity to discover the transformations that took place, forging the Comodoro that we live in today."

Comodoro Rivadavia now has its very own photo library

Work began in 2012 to adapt and digitize the collection of photographs contributed by neighbors and different local entities over time to the Historical Archive. This was when the project began to take shape, as the team working at the Municipal Historical Archive received technical and training support provided by Fundación PROA and Tecpetrol - El Tordillo Joint Venture. Over the years they have recovered and catalogued 35,000 pieces of photographic and audiovisual material, making up the rich documentary heritage we can appreciate today.

The Comodoro Rivadavia Photo Library is the third of its kind set up by the Techint Group in Argentina, showcasing its commitment to rescuing and preserving local cultural heritage.

Anybody who has family photographs or pictures of local landmarks can get in touch to contribute to building the city's historical image bank. Over 7,000 of these photographs can already be viewed online.