PYMES · Photo Magazine

NARDA
LEPES.

"PHOTOGRAPHY IS THE RECIPE FOR MAKING A COMPANY FEEL HUMAN AGAIN."

Buenos Aires-based photographer NARDA LEPES has been documenting the unsung side of small business culture for the last decade — markets at dawn, factory floors at lunch, family-run kitchens just before service. Her commissioned work for PYMES Magazine forms the backbone of every issue.

This issue she takes us inside thirteen Latin American businesses that have outlasted the economic shocks of the past decade. The portraits are paired with their founders' own words, transcribed verbatim.

The story begins on page 12 — but the images, true to Narda's practice, were taken before the words ever existed.

Read on for the full feature, including a Q&A on lighting decisions, equipment choices, and why she refuses to bring her assistant on the first visit.

/ THE TEAM

EL EQUIPO

DE NARDA ★

NARDA LEPES

Founder & lead photographer. 14 years documenting Latin American small business culture.

★ 180°

SECOND
OPINION.

Every shoot is reviewed by two editors before going to print. Our pre-press process is built around what we'd want to see if it were our small business.

WANKA ★

Associate photographer · documentary & portraiture. Based in CDMX, on the road five months a year.

EMPRENDI
MIENTOS.

A two-year project documenting independent businesses across the region — from Bogotá's coffee roasters to Buenos Aires' record-pressing plants. Each business is photographed twice: once during their busiest hour, once during their quietest.

The contrast in the two visits reveals what the team has come to call "the soul of a small business" — the moments of stillness that hold the whole thing together.

Featured in this issue: seven of the thirteen visits. The full archive is available on the magazine's website with a paid subscription.

The book version, including six previously unpublished portraits, will be released by Hatje Cantz this November.

US$
200,000

SOCIEDADES50%

CRECER ALSO26%

FACTURACIÓN$200K

ALCANCE14 CIUDADES

US$
200.

· PRICE PER LICENSE

For commercial licensing of any photograph in the archive. Editorial use is negotiated separately based on print run and territory.

JAMIE
OLIVER.

· FEATURED CHEF · 26.05

This issue's interview, photographed in his London restaurant during the lull before the dinner service. Eighteen frames across forty minutes.

UNIVERSO
NARDA.

· INSIDE THE ARCHIVE

A weekend at the Buenos Aires darkroom, with proof sheets from twelve years of editorial work. We've selected eighty-six unpublished frames for this issue's centrefold spread.

— 86
FRAMES.

PYMES
PHOTO
'26.

SUMA
RIO·
STAFF

NARDA
LEPES.

UN SANDWICH