Fernando Penhos Zaga Photography
This story is part of a series of futuristic designs to be used as skins for the metaverse.
It is also a vision to a near future in which technology and fashion brands will start to develop and design “smart helmets” which will be the next step to smartphones and a step before “smart implants”.
Give us an idea of your background, where you grew up, and how your interest in photography developed?
I was born in Mexico City and always had a fascination for art and film. My dad’s hobby was editing movies nothing fancy, just cutting ads from movies he recorded from TV and then transferring one movie to VHS and BETA and that gave me the opportunity to watch thousands of movies while I was a kid.
When I was 20, I attended architecture and film school in Mexico City for a while but wasn’t so long before I realized that I wanted to study art in it’s purest form so I moved to Jerusalem were I attended the Art Academy -Bezalel, and learned what “conceptual” art really meant. It was then that I decided I wanted to become a fashion photographer but also keep on learning about art, it’s conceptualism and the business of art. After my Masters Degree in business administration, I started fashion photography for brands and magazines and run a successful art dealing business and keep on creating my body of art.
Where are you based now?
I’m based in Mexico City for now but twill move to another destination soon.
Your work is mostly fashion and beauty but you have an interest in architecture too, do you like shooting on location?
I adore shooting on location and taking advantage of any background as a raw statement, and to organically blend the shapes of the human body with the lines and forms of an object, place or building.
What has been your experience with NFT’s ? Has it been profitable?
I don’t like the terminology “NFT” and the meaning that has been given. It is not the correct connotation to art that most people. NFT’s are nothing more than a digital certificate of authenticity, so, in simple words, an NFT is a “digital piece of paper” that holds any kind of “encrypted” information and can be traced from anywhere. In a near future, any car insurence, medical records, art provenance, birth certificates, passports and any other form of document, will be in the form of an NFT, yes, you can give it a nice look by adding an animation, gif, picture, drawing to it but in the end, it’s the information and the secure way it is stored which makes them valuable.
NFT’s have been profitable to me in a very unconventional way because I’ve been designing and developing digital art to be used and promoted as NFT’s for major artists such as Pedro Friedeberg, Fabian Chairez, Francisco Esnayra amongst others, but to be honest, despite having lots of my works on NFT’s platforms, I’ve never sold a single one of them as only digital artwork, rather, a bundle of a fiscal work -one of my paintings or prints- that comes with its digital version “certificate of authenticity” and it comes animated (NFT) .
What are your thoughts on AI?
I love love love A.I. the same way I love Photoshop. To me, they are both great tools that help me create whichever ideas I have in mind, and despite the common believe that A.I. will take over, I believe it’s as noble as any other technological advance and it can be as useful and/or harmful as anyone wants it to be.
What would be your dream job?
My dream job would be to be able to keep on doing what I already do, honestly, I can’t get enough of it.
Which job has been your most fulfilling so far?
The one I’ve been doing which is fashion photography, art dealing, fine art restoration and researching and finally art interventions .
Do you work to music- or silence?
Definitely music and/or movies; I find it very peaceful to watch movies while I work on the
computer and listen to music while on studio working with the team. I love silence but not when I’m working.
Which photographers impacted you most?
I can’t help but smile when I get to answer a question like this, this gives me great pleasure:
Txema Yeste / Jeff Wall / Miles Aldridge / Tim Walker / Juergen Teller / Sølve Sundsbø / Emmannuel Lubezki (cinematographer) / Man Ray / Henri Cartier- Bresson / Mario Testino / David Lachapelle / Martin Parr and the list goes on and on and on and on.
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
Finally directing my own movie and doing the same work as now but in different places; I’d love to be able to live and work while visiting different countries and meeting lots of people.
