Could you tell us about yourself? What do you do, what do you like, and some other relevant information, please?

I am Ismael Tounia, I live in Madrid, I am the author of Les Naïve and I am a huge Dolly Parton fan.

As you said, you are the author of Les Naïve, a beautiful editorial project created as an ode to purity and innocence. What motivated you to start this project? 

My main motivation to create this project was to develop and archive different perspectives on purity and photography. I feel it’s a vast theme that has many perspectives to discover, and as I mention in my editor’s letter from my first issue, I’m deeply obsessed with this theme and also with exploration and discovery. Probably my ambition to discover new things and investigate is what motivated me the most. 

How was the process of creation of this first issue?

It was truly mesmerizing! I loved every single step of the way. I got to discover a lot of new things by myself that I always saw from a rare view, and it was something I’ve always wanted to do, so I really enjoyed the process.

One thing that caught my attention from this project is that you say that you’re obsessed with purity. What is it that captivates you about it? Why is it so special to you?

I think that, as with any type of obsession, it comes from your roots. Growing up, purity was always something very important in my family values and in everything that surrounded me, so I’ve always valued purity a lot. To never lose your essence and to appreciate it was something very important, and that’s maybe one of the life lessons I learned. From thereon, it has always been important in my life.  

If I’m not mistaken, Les Naïve is the result of your search for the definition of purity. How would you define this word and feeling and how do you translate it to your editorial project? 

I always try to define purity as an individual and personal concept, not a general one because I think I wouldn’t be capable of defining it like that, so I can only give it the meaning it has to me. It is a word that is difficult to explain with words because it’s so personal that no one can give one universally true, neutral, and accepted definition of what love or purity is. I hope I get to discover a little bit more about what purity is with this project. 

In your first issue appear the works of renowned Spanish photographers like Fede Delibes, Jaime Cabrera Huidobro, Carlos Darder, and Luis Venegas. How was it like working with them? How did you do it to adapt each one’s style to the idea you had in mind?

Working with all of them was absolutely amazing, I love all of them and I admire their work so much. It was really easy working with them. I really didn’t want to adapt their work to my project but rather adapt my project to their work. I feel like what I wanted to do with this project was to portray their view of what purity is and their personal interests in this theme, so I didn’t make them adapt their work to this idea. I just wanted to know their perspective on the theme and go in-depth with what purity means to these incredibly talented people.  

You are now working on the new issue of Les Naïve, the second one. What can you tell us about it? Do you already have something to show/tell us about it?

I can’t say anything about it, I don’t want to jinx it, but I can tell you that I have a feeling that you’re going to LOVE it! 

How will this second issue of Les Naïve be different from the first one?

In this first issue I addressed purity with a more general perspective, and I feel like with the next numbers to come I am going to focus on looking for purity in more specific places. The search for purity is always going to stay the same.

How do you see the future of Les Naïve? Do you plan on publishing more issues? If so, would you like to always keep the same approach or will you experiment with various topics and formats? 

I hope it has a long life with many numbers to come, and of course, I’d love to experiment and try new things along the way by creating new numbers and producing new things for Les Naïve. 

To conclude, what message would you like to send to the world through this publication? 

Live fast. Die young. Be wild. Have fun.