I'm an amateur photographer based in the city of São Carlos, São Paulo state, SE Brazil.
I used to make photographs since I was about 15-17 years old. My first camera was a Olympus Trip, an analogue camera. Many years after that I switched to several digital cameras. Presently I own a Nikon D500 with a small set of lenses and a Fujifilm X100T 23mm.
A few years after my retirement as an university professor, after teaching Environmental Chemistry at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) for 45 years, I decided to invest money and time dedicating myself more seriously to photography. I´ve taken on-line courses as well as I´ve participated to various photography festival across Brazil.
By far, my biggest interest is street photography. And in it, I'm interested in portraits, everyday street scenes and architecture.
New project called ‘dissolvências” in portuguese. I don´t find the exact word for the title in English. The first translation that came to my mind is ‘dissolutions’ but it is no quite correct to the meaning I want to give to this project.
As I previously announced two days ago, the 9th Photo Exhibition (the 1st took place at USP in São Carlos-SP-Brazil in 2019) of my project and book published in 2021 called RURAIS is already installed in the lobby of the Rectory of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Rod. Washington Luiz, s/n – Monjolinho, São Carlos, SP-Brazil where he will remain until April 24, 2023.
There are 21 black and white photographs of rural workers from different locations in 4 Brazilian states: São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul that I took in the years 2018-2021.
I am immensely grateful to Mrs. Lourdes Moraes, Chief of Staff of the Rectory and Prof. Dr. Pedro Sérgio Fadini, ProRector of Research (ProPq) at UFSCar for the invitation to set up this exhibition, for the warm welcome and for making this wonderful space available at the Rectory. Thanking Mrs. Lourdes and Prof. Pedro, I am also respectfully thanking all the senior management at UFSCar in São Carlos, a house that was my home for 45 years.
I would be more than happy with the visit of the entire UFSCar community as well as other visitors from the cities of São Carlos and the region!
Visitation will take place from Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 19:00.
In due course, we will disclose the date and time of an opening act for the exhibition and a date/time of a possible visit guided by me.
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PHOTO: rural workers returning to their homes after a hard day’s work. Rural area of the municipality of São João Batista do Glória (MG-Brasil). 2018.
Photo exhibition. Hall of the rectory building of the Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, SP-Brasil. March/2023.
I have an umbilical connection with rural workers. My parents were farmers, landowners in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
In my childhood and adolescence I worked on the land in various activities. I am immensely proud of my past. This project is a tribute to my parents, Antonio Mozetto and Eliza Llobregat, sisters/brother and their families who have enjoyed the benefits of the land throughout their lives.
It is also dedicated to other countless and tireless rural workers in this immense country who dedicate themselves hard to the daily and heavy work in the production of the food that arrives at our tables.
“The simple men and women of the countryside who live off the land and for the land on their small rural properties and many others who daily shed their sweat in labor on other people’s properties and businesses are those who know the true value of the land, love the land , love their places. They are the authentic, anonymous and invisible heroes and heroines and, truly, the strongest of this country” (Mozeto, Antonio. Rurais. Editora Origin. São Paulo (SP). 125 pp. 2021).
My photograph in this project is a telluric manifestation about these people and their activities, which, however painful and sometimes cruel, are deliciously happy and poetic. It is this charm that insists on overcoming the social ills that I seek to portray.
My hope is that this project will contribute to highlighting how precious Brazil’s rural workers are.
[impressionist ‘watercolors’ on rainy days through the car window]
[painting with light in the rain][painting with light in the rain][painting with light in the rain][painting with light in the rain][painting with light in the rain]
I just wanted to encourage you to look at 10 photos from my new series that I started “in the rain” a few days ago. The photos are from the city of São Carlos, SP, through streets and corners that I’ve seen since 1969 (with several gaps, some long, living and studying outside Brazil in several countries).
These streets, houses and other buildings mean a lot to me and were ‘handpicked’.
I always liked seeing the rain, feeling the rain and, of course, photographing the rain/in the rain.
Ever since I was a boy, when I was still working on the small farm helping my parents, I’ve had ‘this thing’ with rain.
These beginnings of summer, like now, and the summers themselves were days, weeks when there was a lot of rain and little could be done to work in the rain and so I miss the meetings with the employees of my parents, my uncles and even a neighboring farm belonging to a friend of my father’s where there were a much larger number of employees, rural workers, and in sheds we watched time go by… often listening to viola, guitar, tambourine and accordion music than many workers, predominantly from the Northeast and black people who came to the ‘south’ to work on the farms… I think that there I believed a taste marked by music, by the roots of the Brazilian people and by cachaça (I drank a few sips even though I was still a boy, already ceasing to be a boy). …lol…..There were fabulous coffee plantations specifically on this farm called São Sebastião and also on my parents’ small property.
I hope you like it! Leave your sensations, feelings about it! for which I thank you in advance.
A 2023 full of dreams and hopes for all of us!!! And long live the photography that keep us alive!!!