On our last trip to Buenos Aires, we decided to do another photo shoot with our friend, Kicca Tommasi. We needed new photos to use for promotion, and wanted a fresh look on the website. I had recently bought a couple of suits in Bangkok, and Cyrena had some dresses made in Buenos Aires, so we just had to find the right location. Luckily Kicca knew just the place.
There are a lot of old, worn-down buildings in Buenos Aires, and in some of the nicer barrios (neighbourhoods) you can see remnants of the golden age. Big, luxurious apartments that stretch over several floors, with chandeliers and elegant rokokko style furniture, separate rooms for maids and servants, and tall ceilings. Our location had it all. Kicca has a good eye for light, and likes to use the natural sunlight, so we let the sun guide us through the different rooms over the course of the day.
Before my first photo shoot, I remember being nervous about how to act in front of the camera and worried that the photos wouldn't come out nice, but I had no idea how exhausting it could be. When you dance, you never stop moving completely. Even a final pose is really just a very slow transition, and it only lasts a couple of seconds. In a photo shoot you hold poses for an extended period of time, and often you have to do it many times before you get it right. Not only do you have to worry about the getting the right angle, the perfect positions and nice lines, but you have to do it without looking tense or strained. We wanted the body language and facial expression to tell a story, and not to show the physical stress of the technique. To make the photos look more natural, we did several of the shots in movement.
"El Tango es un pensamiento triste que se baila." - Enrique Santos Discépolo
The best Tango photos capture the essence of Tango. The chemistry between two dancers. The passion. A story. In Tango, you dance who you are. You put your soul, your history, your experiences and your feelings into the dance. This is also why it is said that to dance Tango you should experience the culture and history of Buenos Aires, where it all started. It's no easy task to capture this in a photo, for the subjects or the photographer. I don't know if we succeeded, but we tried to portray what Tango means for us.