Eduardo and Miguel, two twins with a plural life

At first, one is not sure where to open

a two-sided photobook that offers two beginnings to the reader.

Who cares where to start.

After all, the faces that make up the covers of the publication are said to be the same, and the story it contains is that of an indissoluble bond that is balanced at both ends and was strengthened 54 years ago;

on May 1, 1968, the day its protagonists, the twins Eduardo and Miguel Portnoy, were born.

Since then they have never parted.

They have no parents, no siblings, no partner, no offspring, not even friends.

But they are not alone.

They have each other.

Their enduring and indestructible brotherly bond gives meaning to their existence.

Edward & Michael

is the first photobook by Ignacio Coló (Buenos Aires, 1980).

An intimate and moving photo essay that arises by chance: at the end of a February afternoon in Buenos Aires when, stopped at a traffic light, the photographer sees two identical beings pass in front of his car.

Arm in arm they prepare to cross the street.

"A surprising image, a visually magical moment," says the author on the other end of the phone, who immediately knew that he wanted to portray them.

He parked the car and went looking for her, but when they turned the block the couple had already disappeared.

The owner of the nearest kiosk told him that they were brothers, and they passed by there every day.

Coló left his card at the newsstand.

The next day the photographer received a call.

It was Miguel, "Eduardo's twin brother," the interlocutor pointed out.

'Portrait of Miguel'. Miguel is the younger of the two (by 7 minutes).

He is also the most irreverent and daring. Ignacio Coló

'Portrait of Eduardo'. Eduardo is the oldest (by 7 minutes).

As a good older brother, he is responsible and the one who is always attentive to the rules. Ignacio Coló

Eduardo and Miguel were born on May 1, 1968. Their lives have passed together ever since. Ignacio Coló

There are details in which the brothers make a difference. Ignacio Coló

They live together in Buenos Aires.

Every morning they go to pray and then to work in the same office. Ignacio Coló

Eduardo maintains a conversation on the mobile while Miguel remains like a shadow on the other side of the window. Ignacio Coló

Miguel in the bathroom. Ignacio Coló

Testing the telephones that they have been provided at work. Ignacio Coló

Photo belonging to the family album with an annotation by Eduardo. Ignacio Coló

Eduardo and Miguel at their house in Buenos Aires. Ignacio Coló

For almost four years, the photographer took pictures of the twins.

He spent long afternoons with them in his small apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Chacaritas, where they share a room —as they have done all their lives— and from time to time he accompanied them on their outings.

The only brother of the twins died when he was only twelve years old, it was a severe existential blow for the whole family.

Later his father passed away and in 2010 his mother did.

His uncles and cousins ​​are also not living.

"They mainly have each other," emphasizes Coló.

“That is the heart of this story;

brotherly love."

Jews and very believers, in the mornings they go to pray.

On Friday afternoons they dress in a suit and put on a bow, they have kept the same clothes for decades, but to celebrate the Sabbath you have to be well dressed.

They work as administrative staff in a leather goods company, both in the same place.

“Their shadows are not stepped on;

they accompany each other, they need each other”, writes the psychoanalyst Susana Kuras Mauer in a text that is included in the book.

"The tenderness they share with each other is so strong and unique that it turned out to be a pillar on which to shape the project," says Coló.

A photo essay that was the winner of the first edition of the Star Photobook Dummy Award, an initiative of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, in collaboration with the publishers Phree, Possible Editions and RM, which has made the publication possible.

"The tenderness they share with each other is so strong and unique that it turned out to be a pillar on which to shape the project," says Coló.

A photo essay that was the winner of the first edition of the Star Photobook Dummy Award, an initiative of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, in collaboration with the publishers Phree, Possible Editions and RM, which has made the publication possible.

"The tenderness they share with each other is so strong and unique that it turned out to be a pillar on which to shape the project," says Coló.

A photo essay that was the winner of the first edition of the Star Photobook Dummy Award, an initiative of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, in collaboration with the publishers Phree, Possible Editions and RM, which has made the publication possible.

The different situations that occurred within the brothers' routine were being recorded through the photographer's camera, but inside the Portnoy home, a ground floor where natural light is scarce, the photos were dark.

"They didn't convey what I felt, which was something much brighter," says Coló.

Thus, the photographer decided to integrate a flash that gave way to the white color that surrounds the entire story and is integrated as one more narrative component.

Like a background that, towards the middle of the book, where the stories of the two protagonists converge, takes over both figures, blurring their identity.

“From the beginning it was clear to me that I wanted to flee from naturalism”, highlights the author.

“History is constructed to a certain extent by magical overtones,

and working on white allowed me to emphasize the purity that the protagonists transmitted to me.

At the same time, it accompanied the narrative sense that the story was taking on.”

Eduardo and Miguel at their house in Buenos Aires. Ignacio Coló

The design of the book plays a fundamental role in the presentation of this story in two voices, its format quickly contributes to the narration and enriches it.

For this, the photographer initially had the advice of the Japanese editor and curator Yumi Goto and later with the collaboration of the Venezuelan designer Ricardo Báez.

The two decks give entry to Eduardo on one side and Miguel on the other, until they reach a meeting point.

The portraits of Eduardo, at one end of the book, find the inverted replica of him at the opposite, in Miguel.

Each page is made up of two sheets of paper, on which the siblings' objects, details of the house and family photos are interspersed.

"I think it's Miguel, I'm not sure," writes Eduardo himself about one of the images that come from the family album.

They both have a necklace with their name inscribed in silver.

"Over time I was able to distinguish them and see their peculiarities," says the photographer.

“The differences between them are very sober and even at first I doubt a little, but I am already identifying them even in their tone of voice over the phone.

Eduardo is the oldest, he was born ten minutes earlier.

"He is the most responsible, the most attentive to the rules and the one who leads the way," says the photographer.

"Miguel, as a good younger brother, is more of a transgressor."

Turning the pages of the book, one couldn't help but think of

(1967), one of Diane Arbus's most iconic photographs, in whose work the theme of alterity recurs.

Twins as identical as they are different that the photographer wanted to show together in her search for the differential.

Highlighting their similarities in ornamental details and in the way the girls posed in front of the camera, the artist revealed their similarities as well as exalted their differences.

In the same way, as the reader is immersed in

confirms that photography shows more than what one perceives, and shows differences where we only see similarities.

Through its capricious nature, it takes us into that world between reality and fiction that constitutes art.

Edward & Michael

.

Ignacio Colo.

Phree.

Possible Editions.

RM.

112 pages.

35 euros.

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