April 13, 1973 male bravo He drove to Manises Airport in a brand new automatic BMW 2800 to pick up Martín J. Louis.the photographer who a year ago “fixed” the singer’s image as a serious, formal and popular “singer” on the cover of the Valencian artist’s fourth LP “Mi tierra”.
On this occasion, Martín flew from Barcelona, where his studio is located, to Valencia, to take photos to accompany a report about Nino Bravo for the magazine Popular 1, directed by Jordi Serra i Fabra. The idea was to use some of these photos from Aielo de Malferit for ‘América, America’, the next single that the artist plans to release. The song was already released posthumously and that session It was the last movie starring Nino Bravo, who would die in a car accident just three days later.
exposure allergy
Darío Ledesma, in his book ‘Nino Bravo, voz y corazón’, states that Nino and Martín J. Louis (pseudonym used by the Segovian José Luis Martín Frías) met in 1972. The photographer was struggling to make a name for himself in the music industry.He shoots images for album covers of different artists and groups.
In an interview with Ledesma in 2008, Martín described Nino Bravo as “a shy characterwho doesn’t like being photographed because he “looks so bad”. “Let’s just say that even though he performed very well live, the fixed camera gave him some ‘yuyu’.
As noted in Nino Bravo’s official biography, the ‘My Land’ photos were taken at two locations of his home: in front of a colorful autumn motif mural near the entrance and in a decorated room adjacent to the living room. yellow with wallpaper. “It’s not because he doesn’t look photogenic,” Martín recalls. “What if he had a certain “allergy” to the pose. I don’t know what Nino looks like. I think in the period before my photos people didn’t like the way they looked.”
indoor Photos
Faced with the usual photographs of the artist posing outdoors, Martín chose interior photographs and very careful light. “We always did that in Valencia because my studio was in Barcelona and he didn’t want to do it there. That’s why I moved my studio to his house. We did almost all the sessions there”.
The singer was so pleased with the result of the first sessions that she asked the record company to be Louis, who in the future would always take her picture.
“When he took the picture, he was very pleased to be directly out of the pose, except when we were doing very specific materials and work for the cover. In the second case, she asked him to look at the camera. He was also very professional, taking the sessions extremely seriously. I can assure you that of all the artists I photographed, most of them never took their photographs seriously”, recalls the Segovian portrait artist.
A Polynesian restaurant in Valencia
Going back to that day on April 13, Martín J. Louis recalled in an interview with Ramiro Ledesma that after Nino picked him up from Manises airport, they went straight to Brani, the offices where Nino Bravo managed his career. He wanted to take advantage of the photographer’s presence to take some pictures of the Humo duo, two young men with whom the singer wanted to start his own record label.
Martín photographed Nino signing a contract with ‘Smoke’ Miguel and Fernando, two teenagers accompanying the singer in the car where the singer was involved in the fatal accident in which the singer died. Later, Nino and Louis went to the Polynesian restaurant Krakatoa, located in the Colegio del Patriarca square, where the artist posed for the camera. dressed in a brown suit and with a more serious expression More than ever, as Ledesma points out.
Leaving the restaurant, they began searching for new places to continue their photo session until they reached a field on the outskirts of the city. “I remember that session was very long because we went in his car to locate the outdoors,” Martín explained. “He took me attractive sites And I think we chose three or four places.”
chat with the shepherd
“They took photographs in the field that might be the last photos of the singer’s life,” writes Ledesma. a brave boy simple, humble and sincere, in its case there is no trace of the flamboyance or solemnity of any other artist”. During the session, a flock of sheep appeared, led by a shepherd, who soon caught the attention of the singer.
“I was very surprised at the shepherd and the sheep. They talked for a long time. This surprised me because apparently Nino and the priest had a few things in common, but I already thought it was beautiful that a great artist could communicate so well with someone like the pastor. The priest knew him, of course, because everyone knew Nino in Valencia. They talked for a long time, and while the conversation was going on, I was taking pictures,” Martín recalls.
A car not for racing
When the session was over, Nino and Martín went to eat a paella and had a long talk before the photographer took the plane to Barcelona. “When Jules Verne talked about the nightclub, his eyes lit up and he admitted that he was happy to be one of the few prophets in his country. Martín was most grateful for Nino’s sympathy and trust to share his best. deep thoughts”, writes Ledesma.
“He was very happy with his new vehicle: an automatic BMW 2800,” says Martín, who photographed Nino with his new purchase that day. “He wanted a family car, not a car for the race… I realized that he was happier than ever before that he had reached the pinnacle of success. Although he was worried, because from 1974 he would only stay in Spain for about three months… Then America “He would have to go to . He had multiple contracts from now on. That separates him from his family again.”