We met Mateo in Buenos Aires about 4 years ago. I (Santiago) had the opportunity to contribute to one of his first projects which is still going, "MOSTRO" (the name hit me immediately, it's slang for champ), a fanzine that shows skateboarding in a way that has never been shown on the national skateboard scene, handmade with very old and almost obsolete techniques.
We left to Barcelona shortly after meeting Mateo, but luckily time brought us back together in Barna where the idea of doing something together became strong, and this is the result.
We did not want to miss the opportunity to ask him some questions and to know a little more about his way of working. The result is pure, transparent, creative and different, just like him.
Instagram: @clubdelprado @mostroskatezine
Where the idea of mixing disused graphic techniques with street skate photography and a reading of cities as contemporary as the one you make comes from?
It all started little by little. Different things started to mix: skating, walking, taking pictures, roaming the street, alone or accompanied, without much destination... seeing people, buildings, sidewalks. After a while, it began to take form, and became a search, a purpose for which skateboarding works as a means.
It is something that I enjoy doing while I do it, and then I enjoy seeing what I did and what I can do with all that. And besides pleasure, there’s also something else, an endless search, restlessness.
I really like to see skate photos, but sometimes I get bored seeing them so loose, in a magazine, an interview, or an advertisement. I like when they have a thread, when a materiality is formed, when something goes through all the photos, that there is a meaning.
That's why I like publication as support: photobooks or fanzines or whatever you want to call them. A concept can be developed in a publication. It is entirely dedicated to that concept, without interruptions, advertisements or conditions. Photography can be taken to another space, not magazines or exhibitions. The photos lose their individual value and become part of a group, a context in which they live. In my case, the context is skateboarding, and the visual path I propose is through skateboarding.
Why do you think people are so obsessed with nostalgia?
The truth is that I don't choose them. I don’t usually look for or sign skaters I like and propose them to work with me. I go out with my friends and we produce together. I tell them my ideas, we discuss them, and they contribute a lot.
Normally it comes up mutual and natural. I know someone, I like how they skate, they know me and my work, and they’re up for the idea of going to skate and take pictures with me.
As the material I produce is only for my projects, not magazine notes or brand ads, I don't go out to shoot with people I don't know. My photography, especially skate photography, is not commercial. I don’t make money doing it. If I did it for a living, I don’t think I’d like it so much.
Have you ever thought about experimenting with other disciplines?
Yes, recently I wanted to combine photography with something more visual, an experience. Maybe some installation, something with lights or projections. A staging. It’s still vague. But I’d love to build something that blends graphic with visual.
A place you would love to photograph?
I’d like to go to Sao Paulo for a few months to shoot something. It’s the most beautiful and interesting city I’ve visited so far.
What was your first approach to photography?
I bought a super heavy Sol101 Minolta from Mercado Libre in 2012 and started shooting with whatever I could afford. At first it was experimental. I buried films, put them in bleach, baked them in ovens, just to see what happened.
Now I’m more consistent. I shoot with the same film, develop the same way. It’s boring maybe, but I get better results and can focus on the content of the photo rather than the technique. Like skateboarding, technique isn’t everything, it’s about the idea.
From there you can experiment with printing methods, media, formats, visual experiences.
References, influences?
I’m paying less and less attention to skate photography now. Sergej Vutuc and Renato Custodio inspire me a lot in that field. I like what Richard Hart does with Push Periodical, and George Booth Cole’s blend of skate and street.
But what really motivates me now are the works of Marquitos Sanabria and Gianfranco Vacani, photographers of the everyday. Their photos are raw and powerful, and the hardest kind for me to make. That’s why I study them most.
