‘Life is so imperfect that makes it perfect.’
Nahuel Martinez
Photographer
March 2023
Where are you from?
Hello! I am from the north of Argentina, from the province of Salta. I really feel though that I come from many places.
Why did you move from Argentina to Barcelona?
In 2014 I got to know Barcelona. I came to do a tour with a group of friends that I skated with from different parts of Argentina. I liked it at that time simply because it was so different to what I knew from Argentina with the amount of diversity of skateboarding and spots that existed in this city. There are so many spots so close together and in every place wherever you go and more incredible places continue to appear. That has caught my attention at first without practically dabbling into the architectural, historical and artistic culture side that the city has to offer. A few years after this trip, the opportunity arose to move to Barcelona. Without thinking, I knew this is the place where I would spend my future and that was when I fell in love with everything that I mentioned before, the history, art and architecture.
At what point did you move from active skater to photography and why?
I think that like many people, I had an injury in one of my best moments as a skater, or in the most active moment. Travelling and skating practically every day. With the injury, I began to take more photos and to really focus on moments that interested me. That’s when it happened. After the injury, when I “recovered” it was no longer the same for me to skate so blindly. It helped me to understand so many things but I think that now I enjoy both things much more and I still continue to understand more during the time I dedicate to each one of the two.
Is there one skateshot you wish you had taken?
There is probably something that I would have liked to do. But I really think a lot about cause and effect. If something has not been done, it was probably not the time so I am pretty relaxed about it. Life is so imperfect that makes it perfect.
‘With the injury, I began to take more photos and to really focus on moments that interested me.’
Proudest moment as a photographer?
I sincerely believe that the most beautiful moment is when someone (person, company, team, friend, family member, etc.) values your work without talking about the monetary part. When they notice it and they value both the work time and the passion that you put into photography to accurately reflect what they want to express, be it as a job or a personal project. Without a doubt those events are the purest. Personally and with regard to skateboarding photography there is one that I am very happy about and that was seeing my first cover in the Gossip skateboarding magazine which is a legendary Argentinian Skateboard Magazine. I learned a lot working and talking with the director, owner and very best person, Gustavo Humeniuk. He always had a constructive and effective criticism both in the articles and notes that he wrote, as in the photographs that he took for Gossip. The photograph on the cover was a shot that I took in Salta, the city where I grew up. The skater is a Salteño boy called Felix. A beautiful moment.
Most embarrassing?
I work on weekends outside of Barcelona. On a Sunday, I got home at 5pm and I am in hurry to pack my things for a photo shoot with the boys. I joined them and assembled all the external lights but then I noticed I forgot the light emitter. It was really embarrassing. So, I have no choice but to continue the rest of the afternoon moving all the light equipment to the side using only the camera.
Are you still shooting BMX? How different is this for you compared to skateboarding?
Yes, I do sporadically. Right now I’m not doing anything with respect to bmx. I see it quite similar in some aspects with respect to skateboarding in terms of that precision at the moment of capturing the right moment. But with regard to the lenses at the time of framing, represent an appropriate scene to be able to capture both the trick and everything that surrounds the scene itself. So there is a similarity that makes it close to me. Taking into account the dimensions and obstacles that allow the boys who ride bmx to use precisely because a bicycle on the street does not have the same way of sliding through the city and that makes it totally uncertain and perfectly evolutionary for me at the time to go out to create some kind of street bmx photography.
What is on your wishlist?
I would like to continue travelling, knowing and growing, dedicating myself every day more to what I am passionate about. But really one of the wishes that I hold are the thoughts and feelings that made me who I am and where I am will never disappear. The same thoughts and feelings that allow me to grow and remain open to changes and learning. Keeping the good energy and keeping me really enjoying every project that I get involved in. The events that are going to happen in the future will be the fruit of this mindset.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be and why?
I think that if I would interview someone, it would be a friend from my youth, because I have not seen him for many years.
‘Keeping the good energy and keeping me really enjoying every project that I get involved in.’
