Buenos Aires, Argentina

Back in the 1960s, my good friend Ronald Shakespear was also something of a photographer—a collection of his images were published in the book Caras y Caritas, and he’s shared some of his reminiscences in a blog posting (from which I’ve paraphrased the following snip)…

One day in 1964, I took a plane to Spain to go see Orson Welles, who lived near Juan Perón in Puerta de Hierro. I knocked on his door, without an appointment, and was surprised that he opened the door to me—it did not matter that I had arrived “just like that.” There he was, the great Orson, washing down an old Buick (which never actually ran). The fact that I had no appointment mattered not at all: “Never ask permission,” he said, “Never.”

That cemented my admiration for him. He invited me to the Plaza de Toros de Madrid, I spent a lovely afternoon and took some pictures that I still love (even though the originals were lost by Atlantis magazine after they were published). We spent an unforgettable afternoon watching the master bullfighter Curro Giron… then we went to the Plaza butchery (to buy meat) and Giron gave the bull’s ears to Orson.

Above images (all photos by Ronald Shakespear): film director Orson Welles (1915-1985) in Madrid, 1962; Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, (1899-1986), already blind at the time of the photo, in Mexico, 1964; Argentine jazz pianist Enrique “Mono” Villegas (1913-1986) at a friend’s house in BA, 1964. The book cover of Caras y Caritas, design by Rubén Fontana.