Moving to Buenos Aires as a Photographer
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Photography
Travel
Tags:
Buenos Aires
Argentina
I recently move to Buenos Aires. But it does not matter for how long you are coming to Buenos Aires, if you bring your camera gear you should be with the customs. Due to the economical situation the argentine government imposes a big import taxes for all products from outside Argentina. To avoid people circumvent these tax and smuggle goods, they also restricted how much goods a private person is allowed to bring into the country without having to pay this tax (currently it is about $300 US).
If you are like me, and bring a bag full of camera gear, the customs officer will have quite a few questions. In my case I had to convince the officer that it is my gear and that I am not going to sell it here. The fact that the officer did not speak English and I did not speak Spanish made this even more complicate. In the end I manage to convince him that the gear is mine and that it is for personal use. In particular there were 2 things that seemed to play major role in convincing the officer:
- Also my gear is generally in pretty good conditions, some of it shows some minor wear-and-tear. In particular my my camera neck straps shows some major usage. This helped to convince the officer that my gears was used.
- The other, and maybe the most important factor in convincing the officer, was showing him some of my pictures. In particular I have a printed version of my current portfolio which I showed it to him. After he saw the portfolio he petty much let me go.
Also I talked mainly about camera gear, this applies to anything valuable (cloth, electronics, etc). I am still exploring the city and will post later about good spots to take pictures and how to stay safe in Buenos Aires.