Growing up in Buenos Aires, Sebastián Faena took photographs of classmates in their mothers’ clothes. “I didn’t know it at the time, but I was creating fashion spreads,” he told The Daily Front Row in 2015. “It wasn’t my thing, but I was happy doing it and was good at it early on.” What Faena really wanted to do was make movies. He presented his first feature film at the Mar Del Plata Film Festival in 2007 as a fresh-faced 17-year-old. Even so, the film’s lead, Dolores Fonzi, won the award for Best Actress.

A year later, when Faena moved to New York to study music and literature at Columbia University, he met the photographer Mario Testino on the street. The pair bonded, and Testino put Faena in touch with heavyweights in the fashion industry like the editor Carine Roitfeld. Photography had been a pastime—but the encounter marked the beginning of a prolific career.

Since then, Faena, whose uncle owns the Faena Hotel in Miami, has shot spreads for Vanity Fair, Vogue Italia, and Harper’s Bazaar, featuring stars ranging from Gigi Hadid to Celine Dion. Here, the artist shares his go-to restaurants, cafes, and sights in his hometown.

Bosques de Palermo

An enormous and unkept park with glorious gardens and lakes. It’s the perfect place to enjoy the sun and silence during the day. (turismo.buenosaires.gob)

JARDÍN JAPONÉS

Jardín Japonés is located across the street from where I was born. The sushi restaurant there is great, and the garden makes you feel like you are in Japan. People don’t come here enough. (jardinjapones.org)

ROSEDAL DE PALERMO

This beautiful rose garden in Bosques de Palermo is both nostalgic and romantic. (turismo.buenosaires.gob)

Ciudad Universitaria de buenos aires

This site has been untouched since the 1970s. (You’ll recognize it from the first scene of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point.) (uba.ar)

PLANETARIO GALILEO GALILEI

A personal obsession. You can look at the stars from the planetarium, but I also find it to be the most beautiful building in the city. (planetario.buenosaires.gob)

El Obrero

The best parrilla in Buenos Aires. Trying our version of the steakhouse is all you need to understand the country’s flavors—it’s the most Argentine you can get. (instagram.com)

La Boca

This multicolored neighborhood is all about being grateful to the soccer player Diego Maradona. La Bombonera, the Boca Juniors stadium, is incredible. I’m the only person I know who has fallen asleep during a game there.

San Telmo

One of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. San Telmo is Buenos Aires imitating Paris, La Belle Epoque in South America. It’s so gloomy and melancholic—like tango.

Costanera

The name for the stands that sell choripán, or grilled sausage sandwiches, by the Rio de la Plata at sunset.