Freitas e Hijo

The studio belonged to José Virginio Freitas Henriques, the son of Christiano Junior and a fellow Portuguese. He had two locations in Mar del Plata: one on San Martín Street 2385 (previously occupied by Pedro M. Debenest) and another on the Bristol boardwalk. They operated between 1917 and 1933 under the name "Freitas e Hijo" (Freitas and Son). By the time they established themselves in Mar del Plata, José Virginio was already sixty-six years old, so it was his son Enrique, who had been part of the Freitas e Hijo partnership at their studio in Paraguay Street 1150 in Buenos Aires since 1913, who took charge. Unlike other photographers who complied with the municipal regulation of including the year of the photograph, the Freitas studio only did so during the first two seasons (1917 and 1918). From then on, the images simply read "Freitas e Hijo." After José Virginio's death in 1928, the business name changed to just "Freitas," with the year once again incorporated to the right of the photograph.