Marco Argüello
was born in 1985 in Paraguay, although now he calls Athens, Greece home. Some say his images are over saturated to the point of “garish”. But this is exactly what he wanted to show. What immediately struck me was the “sun worshipping” past the age of 70. Well, I guess it probably doesn’t much matter what SPF you use past a certain age. In my imagination, most have come from the relatively sunless northeast or rust belts, and they were making up for a lifetime of office lighting. Vitamin D overload.
His series is called ‘Chroma’, and reflects his year long travels,…including South Beach in Miami. Inspired by the visual tsunami of color and an almost “alternative” lifestyle. He and his wife had an epiphany one day. Life is too short! And so they started to travel. First driving across the US, and then going from Spain, Morocco, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hawaii, Thailand, Myanmar, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and finally his home country of Paraguay. He basically used the Contax T2 to record hotel rooms, shopping malls, and everything from very interesting people to just the mundane of daily life. There was no plan, yet the work looks like another series he would be working on.
Marco Argüello and Contax T2
Shooting with 35mm film, the delay in developing and editing actually ending up providing a very stylized series that provided the time to be surprised by images and edit in leisure. The ability to remain true to a vision, and not fall into the quickie “please follow me” images so prevalent on all the social sites these days. I do agree with Marco that the relationship between good photography and “please follow my butt” photos is quite stark in their obviousness. Although, I don’t think he’s ever said it like that. The apparent over-saturation sometimes hides the thoughtfulness of each image. We look forward to more from Marco Argüello and Contax T2. Check out his site below. Find a Contax T2
Website