What does that man want from you and why is he hidden behind a mask? Ariel and Sebas Vocalino from Argentina show us their latest creations protagonised by this strange wonderer. Curious we ask and they give us all the details in an exclusive interview for Yatzer!
We at Yatzer are constantly in search for new talents and this time we have gone as far as Argentina. The Vocalino brothers are a dynamic artistic duo formed by Sebas and Ariel, a photographer and an art director respectively, that have joined their forces to project their own vision of art and creativity. They have worked for prestigious brands like Pirelli, Lancôme, Nokia, Adidas or Coca- Cola and still have time and passion to dedicate to their own personal work, away from the world of publicity. We proudly present you their latest series called “Turista”, a journey through the eyes of a lonely traveler.

How did your adventure start?
Since we were born, better say, since Sebas was born, we´ve had almost everything in common. Ariel was born in January of ´74 and 15 months later, Sebas arrived. The forecasts predicted that Ariel would not be able to bear that arrival, but, for everyone´s surprise… it was not like that. We have been together so far: one next to the other. We´ve shared family, friends, the neighbourhood, trips and thriatlons. But one day, we realized that we also wanted to share in our works what we already shared in our lives.
And then things started to cross between each other: running we talk about work, during the shootings we plan our next trip, and during the trip we train for our next thriatlon. Having much in common makes us have the same eyes, the same looks; and makes us want to be together. This is how we created Los Vocalino. A photography studio with a photographer´s look, an art director´s look, and two brother´s look.

How did you conceive the “Turista” series? What does it represent for you?
The tourist is, for us, a man who knows that is on the way, who enjoys every moment and every place he walks by. The tourist is someone who lives the present very consciously.
He is a person who is lonely and connects to the places through his look.
In this first period, the tourist has travelled around places from our own lives, for instance our parents’ apartment, our club, or downtown in Buenos Aires. These are situations that for everybody seem common but for us, and for some reason, catch our attention. This is how we introduce these things to people: through the tourist.

Could you describe us the process behind the creation?

With the tourist, when we find a place that catches our attention, we register it several times, at different times, with different lights. After that, we decide which the best time to do the shooting is. Sometimes the tourist is one of us, sometimes the other, or sometimes both of us.

How did you come up with the use of the masks in your photos?
We had done past series, in which in different ways we hid our identity.
In our trip to Peru, we found these masks and without knowing what they were for, we bought many of them. Afterwards, we investigated about them and found out that they were used for carnival, exactly to hide men’s identity, so that they don’t feel ashamed of what they do.
What inspires you?
Each of us, our trips, our family.

Which is the difference between you work for advertising and your personal work?
For us, advertising photo is the image you get from the others’ message, while in the artistic photo you show something really yours. We feel the artistic photo as a conversation in which you can choose a topic and then it starts changing to another very slowly. On the other hand, we find it more intimate as regards production, people who participate in our personal work is really close. The climate generated is pretty familiar.

Tell us something about your future projects and exhibitions.
The tourist took us to Brasilia, Brazil. There, we shooted several photos. At this moment we’re working with our curator Grace Bayala, to organize the series and prepare the materials to be shown during this year. As a “coming soon”, we can tell you that we went to Brasilia with a prepared plan and production. The idea was to present the tourist as a runner. But suddenly plans changed. The “tourist” suffered from an injury in one of his ankles and therefore he became a man who travels for work. Besides, at the end of this year one of our photos is going to be shown in “Centro Cultural Recoleta” and will also be part of a book called “People from our city”.