Sergio Bosco and the beauty of intimacy

By Luz Hitters

September 2020

One of the main challenges for portrait photography is to create an environment in which communication between the photographer and the subject flows naturally. For the one behind the camera, there is a thin line between giving into their own voyeuristic passion and inhibiting the subject’s exhibitionism. The creation of such circumstances develops implicitly and even unconsciously. It is an improvised choreography that requires trust, respect, and a connection, which many times might seem random. However, there is nothing erratic about this relationship.

To achieve an honest result, the photographer needs to make a rapid and perceptive diagnosis of the subject’s character, and improvise in such a way that helps unfold their personality. That is the raw material. Ideally, the subject will feel appreciated, even admired, encouraged to show deeper aspects of themselves. Achieving comfortable nudity, both physical and psychological nudity, is an unlikely remarkable result.

Sergio Bosco (b. 1965, Buenos Aires), masters the aforementioned dynamic of portrait photography, achieving a level of intimacy that I find highly moving. He usually shoots his models with natural light in their own homes. The aim is to capture them in their most candid state. He sustains that studios are too cold to achieve that and that bedrooms, kitchens and gardens are the perfect settings for subjects to show themselves as they are, free of pretensions and oppression. By capturing this confidentiality, his work is not only an ode to everyday activities but also a sociological study of the Argentinian culture. Hence, it could be described as the blurred line between portrait and documentary photography.

A common characteristic of his shots is the feeling of familiarity and the evident ease his models feel during the photo shoot. He arrives at each session unbiased, without any preconception or expectation regarding the end result. If he had one, his work wouldn’t achieve such transparency. Instead, he asks them to behave naturally in their own spaces, highlighting the unseen magic present in everyday environments. As many autodidact photographers, he lets time flow, enjoying each session for the sake of its process and not its outcome. As such, he liberates the subject of exigency and encourages the exposure of a more unfettered version of reality.

Bosco portrays nature in its most ample form, either as bodies, plants or food. His images are characterised by a skin-toned palette that recalls the erogenous areas of the body. These colours not only enhance the feeling of calmness and pleasure inherent to his creative process but also emphasise the privacy and liberty of the moment. The settings allow the unobserved details about the person portrayed to come to the foreground of the photograph. These details act as missing pieces of a voyeuristic puzzle that we construct as viewers. 

It is unlikely that we will see one of his subjects using makeup or any filter between themselves and the camera. Alternately, Bosco shoots people that are defiant and self-assured. He captures the coexistence between erotism, vulnerability, strength and tenderness in Argentina’s shifting society. His photography immortalises a young generation that rapidly leaves behind narrow canons of beauty and societal pressures. Consequently, he subverts the historical concepts of passive nudity by contrasting it with an empowered (yet not omnipotent) vision of his models. 

The confidentiality of their own homes enables the subjects to share how the transgressive youth from Argentina feels as they break free from the conservative archetypes of the 20th Century. Through his gaze, Bosco encourages a new concept of sexuality that opposes the traditional rules of arbitrary decency. He captures dynamic femininity and masculinity that battles for its rights and being. 

One of the distinguished symbols in Bosco’s photography is the bed, a metaphor for life and its many stages. It encapsulates both pleasure and pain, being a setting for creation, sickness and death. We spend a large portion of our lives in it, and many times ignore its substantial role in our existence. It witnesses the most genuine moments of our day, as we surrender into the rawest version of ourselves. For Bosco, the bed is the richest scenario for composition as it varies depending on its colours and textures. It allows for many unconventional positions and the exploration of different layouts. Symbolically, it acts as a buffer between the hidden aspects of personalities and the external world. The sheets may represent the veiled and the suggestive, mirroring the speculation of viewers when observing a private photograph. 

Bosco’s photography could be compared to Dutch painting of the XVII Century, as he uses dense light and captures the beauty of mundane activities. His technique also recalls that of Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene, who is inspired by the same school of painting. Van Meene portrays adolescent girls in an intimate context and reflects the ambiguity of the life period they are going through in their blunt expressions. She tackles a timeless conflict: the blurred line between childhood and womanhood, emphasised by a technique that looks both contemporary and from another era. However, in the case of Bosco, he is not interested in staging the images to foreground the internal conflicts of his subjects. He instead photographs grown-ups who are confident in their skin and at ease with their susceptibility. He aims to get the most sincere version he can achieve, which can only be attained through a straightforward relationship. The models know his work beforehand and are aware that the main objective is to enjoy the session. 

In Bosco’s photography, there is no room for shame nor morality. Instead, he is interested in the decadence of the conservative culture, which was characterised by adornment and disguise. He shows subjects for what they are, as opposed to what society wants them to be. By doing so, he indirectly exposes the wasted energy behind the pretence. 

I find Sergio Bosco’s work so touching as it cherishes the tiny things that make us unique. Through his portraiture, he renders visible those parts of ourselves that we are usually reluctant to expose and encourages us to embrace them. By taking away layers of clothes, his subjects leave behind cultural mandates, reassuring us that personal acceptance and pride are more important than any external gaze.