Unfixed

In keeping with our mission to support and inspire creativity, we ask the artists we collaborate with to offer insight into their work, a look behind the scenes, and the opportunity for our readers to learn more about the process. For our latest fashion feature, photographer Marcello Junior Dino answers our questions.
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What was the inspiration behind this shoot?
“Unfixed” grew from the idea that a meaning can resist being pinned down, and that we do not always see or understand something with perfect clarity. In the story, frames from a video appear among the photographs, slightly blurred, so the images seem to move between stillness and motion. I wanted the editorial to hold on to that uncertain, film-like feeling: a story that is present, but never entirely fixed.

What was the first step of putting together the concept and idea for this shoot?
I began by thinking of the story as a series of small worlds. Even when I work with a single character, I like to imagine them moving through different adventures shaped by light. Each light can suggest a different film and open a new atmosphere. For “Unfixed,” the challenge was to let those shifts in light and style coexist while keeping them connected by the same underlying mood.

What is your favorite image from this shoot and why?
My favorite is the image of the figure in the black feathered look on the street. It feels like a frame from a film: someone caught between the ordinary reality of the city and a world that seems slightly unreal. I like that the image suggests a story continuing beyond the frame, without telling us exactly what it means. That ambiguity feels very close to “Unfixed.”

How do you typically find inspiration for your work?
A lot of my inspiration comes from things I happen to notice and photograph with my phone: people on the street, an image in a book, a frame from a film, or sometimes the light in an old advertisement. I watch films of all kinds, but I am drawn just as much to these accidental fragments. I collect them, and over time they begin to connect through a shared atmosphere.

What are some themes that you are frequently drawn to in your work?
I often return to masculine fragility, silence and discomfort, as well as to non-places such as the outskirts of a city. I am interested in people who seem suspended in spaces without a clear identity, and in the quiet tension that can emerge between a person and their surroundings.

How would you describe the style of your work?
My style is made from photographs that can have different kinds of light and different visual languages, but are held together by the same meaning or mood. In each story, I try to create a small world: a character moves through different adventures made of light, and each light feels like a different film. The images can change in tone while still belonging to one emotional landscape.

Be the first to read this story and many more in print by preordering your copy of our twelfth issue here. Marcello has selected Progetto Itaca, which provides support, education, and care for those suffering from mental health issues and their families, as the recipient of proceeds from direct sales of this version of CERO 12.⁠