Nighthawk at the Brick: The MCA’s current “Convergence” exhibit includes the sultry, nocturnal pics of promising newcomer Santiago Traverso

A new photographer is emerging from the foggy dead ends and neon lights of old motels and corner bars. Curators and aspiring models discovered him first in the high-gloss virtual world of Instagram.

Santiago Traverso, 20, doesn’t have his own website yet. His online gallery only exists, for now, in the IG sphere (@travers_photos). Though he’s barely out of his teens, he is, by no means, a shady character. The most threatening thing he might do is hole up in his room and binge on foreign movies.

Polite, reserved and well-spoken artist with a Spanish accent, Traverso has been perceived as a revelation by art lovers and gallery owners across Central Florida. The 20-year-old photographer kicks it old school by shooting with an old FujiFilm camera, and his large format portraits and collages can be viewed in the diversity-centered art exhibition Converging Community & Culture at the Marion Cultural Arts Center’s Brick City Center for the Arts in Ocala.

“I really like the feeling of loneliness in my photos, a melancholy type of loneliness.” Traverso shared during a visit to Brick City this month.

Traverso, born in San Francisco, California, grew up in Lima, Peru. The political climate and a severe economic recession made life untenable in Peru, so his parents decided to relocate to their Ocala home permanently two years ago.

Since he was a child, Traverso expressed himself creatively and has felt out of sync with his preppier, athletic classmates. He was more apt to perfect card tricks than play futbol.

“I tried drawing but that wasn’t my thing,” he said with a laugh. “I was, however, into kirigami that, unlike with Origami, you cut paper instead of folding it. So I was always kinda like finding something artistic I related to until I found photography.”

At 15, he came across photography by way of early entrepreneurship, photographing T-shirts for a clothing line he created with a school friend. It was then that Traverso discovered he could interpret his feelings through images and tell a story with a photo.

Nowadays, Traverso shoots magazine-beautiful models Kalax, an Orlando-based retro, “dreamwave” composer commissioned one of his photos for the cover of one of his recordings of ambient electronic music.

Traverso says he identifies with the mystery and evanescence of nocturnal life. In his photos, you might notice clouds of smoke and impactful wide-angle shots reminiscent of scenes from Blade Runner or noir films from the 1940s, but even more so, the films of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai. “Fallen Angels is my favorite,” he said.

The desolate intimacy of Edward Hopper paintings have also insinuated into Traverso’s portraits and collages, too. “He’s also one of my favorites,” Traverso said. Scenes of women alone at night recall the voyeuristic paintings of the late American painter.

The MCA will present a solo show of Traverso’s work at the Brick in December 2022, but anticipate more from the promising, mysterious photographer before then.