When I turned six years old my parents and relatives took me to the local zoo for the first time to see Nocturama.

It is a facility where you visitors can find nocturnal animals and have the chance to see how they live and behave under an artificial darkness which tries to simulate the dark of the night. They stroke me as being sad, not only were they caged and stranded but also in distress. They behaved as if they were continually looked up on or if they were going to be hunted down by a predator.

This night right after visiting the zoo, I woke up in the middle of the night, struggling to get back to sleep, because I was trying to understand why the animals looked so scared. Finally I reached the answer to my question: Despite the facility security, those nocturnal animals felt deeply vulnerable because they could feel the presence of something evil out of the cage, waiting for the right time to kill them: the visitors.

Extrapolated to real life, Nocturama is set to invite spectators to discover scenes out on the street related to fear and lack of safety people may feel at night, whilst the wonder on their own through dark alleyways or beneath the city lights.

Nocturama tries to represent the vulnerability towards the unknown and intends to capture the premonition that something bad could happen in the dark of the night. Without any doubt, fear is a natural feeling that is capable of paralysing and taking control of anyone’s mind. But, when do we start wonder if we are being followed or stalked? Which are the secrets that may lie among the shadows and city lights? Are you an observer or being observed? Are you a prey or a predator?

About Jose Carpin

Jose Carpin was born in Madrid, Spain in 1982. Right from childhood, he has always been interested in music and creative arts. In his 20s he went to university to study Business and Administration. However, he continued exploring throughout his creative desires, and he created and played electric guitar in an experimental-rock band from Madrid for 7 years in a row, releasing two self-produced albums and touring around Spain.

In 2011 he left Spain and moved to Cape Town, South Africa to work. From then on, he felt in love with photography and decided to buy his first camera and to become a photographer.
Since then, He has been traveling and exploring the world, looking for the most iconic cultures and unexpected everyday life scenes.

His idea of photography is motivated by the effort and desire to reveal and express what his senses feel while he walks through the streets of his hometown or traveling to remote places in the world, in order to show the people the value, beauty and secrets of the world. [Official Website]