That same year, cinematographer Sol Miraglia, who is now the custodian of the studio’s archive, met the sisters and quickly became a presence in their lives. If the studio continued to thrive through the political and economic upheavals that marked Argentina during the 1970s and ’80s, it was the advent of the digital age that led to its closure in 2009. In the two decades that followed, being photographed their the studio became a rite of passage for the makers of the golden age of theatrical revue, including actors, dancers, comedians, singers, contortionists, sex symbols, and the occasional prize-winning canary or crowned adorned dog.
Introduced to photography at a very young age, Luisita and Chela were soon running a successful studio out of their small home on Avenida Corrientes. Luisa’s sister, Chela Escarria, who also played an integral role in the studio, had arrived the year before. Foto Estudio Luisita opened its doors in Buenos Aires in 1958, after Luisa Escarria moved to Argentina’s capital from Colombia with her mother and aunt, escaping La Violencia, a devastating armed conflict that scourged her home country for nearly two decades.
