Ta-ra by Sebastián Bruno, published by Ediciones Anómalas

“From the bar I watch a man in his sixties who has just walked in. He is wearing a shabby suit and sunglasses that are too small for his face. Without saying a word, he makes his way to the makeshift stage. He picks up the microphone. The few people in the bar remain oblivious to the scene, their eyes fixed on their half-finished pints. The music starts. These photographs were made between 2013 and 2022 in the following cities and towns in South Wales: Porthcawl, Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea, Barry Island, Nantyglo, Merthyr Vale, Cardiff, Newport, Abertillery, Caerleon, Pontypool, Brynmawr and Swffryd. In the working class communities of South Wales, ta-ra is another way of saying goodbye.”

Sebastián Bruno’s photographs, mostly focusing on everyday life, have a peculiar flavour, also thanks to the narrative structure of his projects as he welcomes the challenge of “photographing a seemingly ordinary situation, person or object and transforming it into something else”. 

Since his first publication with Ediciones Anómalas, Duelos y Quebrantos, in which the territories of Don Quixote are explored with an ironic and curious look, and in which, through black and white photographs and an amused use of flash, the author transforms himself into a contemporary alter ego of the famous protagonist of Cervantes’ story, Sebastián Bruno brings us into universes familiar yet charged by a touch of extra-ordinary, almost adventurous, where even banality  does not go unnoticed. In Ta-ra, his narrative shifts geographically, but his style and approach to people and the contexts in which they live confirms a careful and empathetic vitality that helps us look at the world around with equal curiosity and sense of closeness.

On April 6th and 7th Sebastián Bruno will hold a workshop on the use of flash and portraiture in Leporello and around Pigneto, with a participants’ final slideshow on April 7^th accompanied by a playlist by Fabio Severo. 

For info and registration: info@leporello-books.com

Sebastián Bruno is a photographer and filmmaker of Argentine origin. In 2010 he moved from Buenos Aires to Cardiff to study documentary photography at the University of South Wales. He lives and works between Wales and France.