Exclusive: Manuel Hernandez on Transforming the Photographic Experience with his Project Desconocidos

Courtesy of Manuel Hernandez.

For most people, photography is not the preferred medium they'd choose for a journey of self-discovery.

Their experiences in front of a camera can usually be linked to specific moments of their lives that require an expert eye behind a lens to capture memorable instances: an engagement, a wedding, the birth of a child, or even a new headshot that embraces their most professional looks.

Rarely do people go to a photoshoot to discover a new side of themselves—the unknown one—until Manuel Hernandez started changing the game with his passion project, Desconocidos.

Inspired by a lived identity crisis he experienced and his own search for meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Venezuelan photographer and publicist has developed a concept that is changing the way we view photography, gifting the person in front of the camera something that goes much further than a picture.

Courtesy of Manuel Hernandez. Manuel Hernandez photographing model.

"Desconocidos arises from a crisis because it was a process of self-destruction and personal growth. My existential search as a person sprinkled over to my work," Hernandez tells People Chica. "My work had always been very professional, very 'Capricorn.' I've always exposed myself through work, and I was concerned about what I was showing through it."

Through a deeply personal search, he was able to conceptualize his ideas into a project that took people beyond the typical photographic experience and allowed them to look within themselves.

"Amid the pandemic, I shaved my hair and started searching for growth very much from my own emotions," he adds. "I was reading about the mind, Freud and psychological theories. The walls of my room were covered with post-its. I have photos from that time with my head shaved. Every day I was reading the book The 5 AM Club. I meditated, worked out—I was like Superman with endless possibilities."

This change brought on a deep questioning of his work and what he had created through his photographic career, as he longed to develop something that blended his newfound spirituality, knowledge and desire to serve others into one coherent experience for his clients.

"From that Big Bang, [the] Desconcidos experience was born. It was the conglomeration of everything plus the foundation that is now in Venezuela by the same name. It's an experience of the best things I have done for the last 12 years which has been photography," he explains.

"Desconocidos came from a deep part of myself that wanted to come out and said: the best way in which this idea will form is if I keep meeting other human beings, giving myself the gift of being there, understanding them, photographing them and creating an image they can have forever of that version of themselves," Hernandez continues.

When I met Hernandez, Desconocidos had already welcomed 152 participants from the likes of Evaluna Montaner, Thalia Olvino and Estefany Oliveira de Sousa, with an impressive following on both his Instagram and YouTube that revered the results of the trailblazing project.

In our first installment of Chica Tries, I had the opportunity to dive into Desconocidos and live the experience myself, something that was as challenging as it was enlightening. A surprising journey of discovering a new side of myself and unlearning old patterns and beliefs of who I was.

As a writer, I had always seen myself as the person behind the scenes. The storyteller, the narrator, or the bard—but never the main character. Therefore, the opportunity of being the subject of a new narrative posed an incredible leap of faith at the hands of Hernandez.

We met in late October for the first part, a coaching session from which Hernandez's creative team developed the ideas for the photoshoot and created three distinct characters I would later breathe life into when it came time to step in front of the camera.

As a follower of his work, I was nervous. I wasn't Stefania Roitman or Adamari López, Phil Collins or any of the other well-known personas I was used to seeing on his Instagram feed. Turns out none of that mattered.

"What I would like people to see, what I'd like to show them is that anyone can have an interesting and captivating life story," he told me when I shared my concerns about being in front of the camera.

"I mean, yes, Evaluna has an interesting story because she's Evaluna and also because she's Montaner and that makes her visible to a lot of people, and that's wonderful. But aside from that, she's super interesting, very much herself and that is also what I want people to see," he added.

Not used to being interviewed, I lived the magic of letting myself answer from the heart, of sharing bits of myself I never had, mainly because no one had ever asked me. In the past, no one cared to ask, "What's one part of yourself no one or almost no one knows about?" Yet, Hernadez, who to me was as close as any stranger, wanted to know.

"My search is to learn to observe the other, ensure that my attention is not on me or on the fact that the other person is famous, but in who that person is," he says. "We're going to look into who this person is and showcase that in a photograph. I don't want it to be a heavy experience or something too intense. I've already understood that it's not so complicated."

For him, all stories and messengers are worthy of being heard, cared for and shared—which is exactly how I felt after we ended our initial Zoom call.

"Look, a message that changes a person's life can happen in five minutes. A person that tells you something in an elevator can change the direction of where you're going. That happened to me with an Uber driver," he shares. "We had a conversation on my way to a photo shoot and he changed my perspective completely that day. Sharing the message is not that complex. It's not difficult because every moment, every meeting you have with someone, just by being you, you're the message."

Courtesy of Manuel Hernandez. Manuel Hernandez holding a camera.

On the day of the photoshoot, I arrived at a studio in Wynwood, Miami, where Hernandez waited for me outside at the door that would lead me inside the Desconocidos experience. Face washed, with zero makeup and feeling anxious about what was to come, he asked me to close my eyes and trust him. He took my hands as I entered the room where the fun began.

With my eyes still closed, I was asked to sit, and his hands became the hands of another person who sat with me while soft music began to fill the room.

It was sacred. A ritual. An initiation.

After a meditation led by Hernandez himself, I embraced the person whose hands held me through the process, the one who also took the time to create the three personas I would soon become: Art Director Mateo Gonzalez. The rest of the team also greeted me, videographer Jose Jaimes, makeup artist Andres Forte and photo editor Miguel Maza.

As Desconocido #153, they were starting a new era of the series with me. In a way, we were all, in Madonna's words, "Like a Virgin."

I was led into the dressing room where I met my three characters and the transformation into hair, makeup and costumes began. First was my unknown side, the one very few people knew about me: Maria Madonna. Taking from my first name "Maria" from a long line of women in my family, Forte and Gonzalez turned me into the epitome of purity and grace.

Hernandez shared the unique nature of this character, as most people who had done the experience previously were typically less attuned to the part of themselves that felt comfortable with their sensuality and sexuality, something he often saw in the early days of his work. For me, the process was different, I was less in touch with the more ethereal part of myself.

Courtesy of Manuel Hernandez. Karla Montalván living the Desconocidos experience for Chica Tries.

"When I started the experience, I used to do it at my house, not at the studio where I do it now, and there was a nearby pier where I often invited women to take pictures. You have no idea how many women I shot naked there," he laughs. "It was the perfect spot for them to become a mermaid because at the last part of the shoot [and] I'd ask, 'What is the most daring thing you can give me of yourself?' Anything could happen, and they'd choose that."

For my second take, I became the Empress, one of the most empowered feminine figures of the tarot. She would represent how I see myself in the present. Wearing nothing more than pasties, underwear and jewelry, Hernandez caught on camera nine distinct personality traits while "Material Girl" played in the background.

"I think any space where you can be yourself from the get-go, where you feel confident, then your authentic self comes out," he says. "There's a level of comfort, of intimacy where you can grow in that area of yourself and embrace other possibilities of being and not being yourself."

Courtesy of Manuel Hernandez. Karla Montalván living the Desconocidos experience for Chica Tries.

Finally, I changed into the High Priestess. The team built a dress around me and I was guided to connect with my inner wisdom, that woman that has herself and the world—the all-knowing.

"I can say that the most surprising part is that it connects with the inside and the outside," he continues. "It's people's stories."

As we wrapped up the blissful hours-long shoot, I thanked Hernandez not only for the space to be the subject but for the realization that I met the undiscovered parts of myself. That I can be more than one thing. That I'm not always what I think I am and there are a million parts of myself I am still becoming.

"The experience is cool because the person can experience three characters. These three are nourished by all the ways in which the others [previous desconocidos] have done them too and have shaped this incredible experience, that aside from being an entertaining product, you take something inside of you that is marvelous. I already understood that it's not about how I'm showcasing it. It is that you, Karla, have your happy not-birthday that day."

Courtesy of Manuel Hernandez. Karla Montalván living the Desconocidos experience for Chica Tries.

Adding, "I think that being known or unknown is as philosophical as being inside or outside yourself. It's how you're observed and who you are and everything you feel inside yourself. Only you know what you're showing others."

Herandez continues, "It sounds really cliché, but people always tell me that they had an opportunity to feel different, you know? And at the same time feel like themselves. So, it's how to be you and how not to be. One of the best things that could happen at any time, knowing how to be and not be, because sometimes you are and others you aren't."

You can make a donation to the Desconocidos Foundation to gift Venezuelan children toys and resources this holiday season. Manuel Hernandez can be found at @manuelphoto on Instagram. The Desconocidos experience can be lived in New York City, New York, and Miami, Florida.