“…man seen more as an animal with nature.”
As an artist, Nicolás Trombetta wants to create his own world in his photographs, a world that “mixes man seen more as an animal with nature”
Essay
Nicolás Trombetta is a contemporary Argentine photographer (born 1972 in Buenos Aires). The main concept and theme that structure his work are the sea, the beach and water. All three are central places in Nicolás Trombetta’s artistic life. From when he was very young, he used to spend much time on the Argentine Atlantic coast, in Mar de Ajó to be more precise.
It was then, when he developed a very intense relationship with the sea, which gives him tranquility and inspiration at the same time. So it comes as no surprise that Nicolás Trombetta uses that coastal landscape and incorporates it into his photographic productions.
There is a very intriguing video available on T.A.L. – Televisión Latin América. It’s in Spanish. For those who don’t speak that language, I’ll summed it up.
Nicolás Trombetta admits in this interview that he’s driven and pushed forward by the great questions of life that have no answer, it’s the big unknown about us and the world that inspires him. Questions like:
“What are we?” or “Where are we going?”
The characters in his pictures always seem to be lost in nature looking for something.
As an artist, Trombetta wants to create his own world in his photographs.
Nicolás Trombetta says that at one point he didn’t know what to do with his life and that it was then when he decided to become a photographer, making a living with what he loved most. Taking photographs has always been a means of visual expression for him that fascinated him. It’s that kind of passion, he says, that’s important if you want to succeed in something.
Trombetta learned to take pictures attending different courses – but mostly he taught himself, in a very autodidact way. He first started out working a couple of years as a freelance photographer for newspapers and magazines. It was during that time when he learned, as he says, “to solve different situations quickly photographically”. Meanwhile he constantly analyzed himself and began to develop his own style in order to be able to “create my own images”.
As an artist, Trombetta wants to create his own world in his photographs, a world that “mixes man seen more as an animal with nature”.
What aspects of Nicolás Trombetta’s methodology can be used as a source of inspiration for one’s photographic projects?
The way Nicolás Trombetta works is a mixture planning in advance and improvisation in the moment of shooting the pictures. His new projects begin with an idea in mind, but it is always subject to change throughout the production process. Trombetta is characterized as a person driven by his instinct.
He always has a couple of places in mind where he likes to take pictures. At the same time he admits, that he loves to discover new places which challenge him. More than anything he develops his productions outdoor which implies that there is always the possibility that it suddenly starts to rain or something else unforseen happens that interrupts the shooting. It is precisely the fact of not being totally in control of outside influences that Nicolás Trombetta loves about working in nature. He takes it as a challenge that he has to be solved artistically.
Whatever happens, he takes photographs anyway. He says that he doesn’t want to leave a shooting with doubts in his head. In the end “something good always comes out”. Go out into nature, start shooting no matter what and keep trying – this is how Nicolás Trombetta’s approach can be summed up. and can summarize the way you work.
“Go out into nature, start shooting no matter what and keep trying – this is how Nicolás Trombetta’s approach can be summed up. and can summarize the way you work.”
Nicolás Trombetta also takes inspiration from seeing other artists, other photographers or artists from other directions. He admires for example painter Vincent van Gogh for example, it was his first contact with the art world. Even though he doesn’t like every work of the Dutch painter, Nicolás Trombetta is fascinated by the passion that van Gogh had for creating art.
As for other photographers, Nicolás Trombetta admires Philip-Lorca diCorcia and David LaChapelle.
In LaChapelle’s work what catches his eye is the color management and staging, the opulent productions – the “kitsch”. Although he doesn’t feel identified with all of LaChapelle’s images, the central question is:
How far you can go with a photo?
From Philip-Lorca diCorcia he admires his ability to illuminate precisely what matters in a scene and make the rest go undetected.
Exposed at Tate Modern: Philip-Lorca DiCorcia talking about the shooting of his series “Heads”
I never talk to them, I don’t ask their permission. I don’t pay them. And eventually I got into trouble.
What can be learned from Nicolás Trombetta?
What’s striking about Nicolás Trombetta is his great passion for photography and of venturing into developing a project – with an idea in mind, but with the freedom of being carried away by the moment.
It’s also important to look for inspiration anywhere you can find it – in nature or in the works of others artists. Not trying to copy anybody, but to learn from them and take the important things to another context.
