Tag: portraits

{self-portraits?}

portraits, selfies

Why do we do so many self-portraits? Are we photographing who we are, who we were or who we want to be? Would these photographic images that we generate be, nothing more, and for one or several reasons, the specters of the people we were, who we are or who we will be one day be? Maybe self-portraits represent more ‘the other side of the coin’ or how authentic or inauthentic we are… how mutants we are… or how nomadic we are… how wanderers we were, are and will be?

Are we capable to make photographs that capture emotions, feelings: of people, objects, places?

Photography, portraits, Street photography

This is a question often asked in photography. Not that it is widely voiced by different photographers, but it can definitely be said that it is in these people’s minds more often than you might think. I’m in this class of people.

I have not (yet) achieved in my lifetime a level of education in photography (or in the visual arts) to affirm principles in this art in a categorical way. I feel (still) far from it. But I’ve already reached some insights that allow me to speak/write some things with relatively reliable content, express my feelings, things like that.

I like to analyze/study works by those who are, in the photography art media, called ‘great masters’. One of them for me is USA photographer Judith Joy Ross (1946; Hazleton, Pennsylvania) who has a wonderful job (my insight) in photography and is at present with an exhibition (a retrospective of the last 40 years: 1978-2015 ) at Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid, Spain until January 29, 2022 (https://www.revistalafundacion.com/…/judith-joy-ross…/). Ross is not one of those studio portraits. Her work environment is outside, it’s the street. In the 80’s she concentrates her work in the portraits genre and, it’s no secret, that she was inspired by the works of great photographers like August Sander, Walker Evans and Diane Arbus, always photographing strangers and mainly (here comes the central point from my ‘review’): the focus on recording or capturing the emotions or feelings stamped on the faces of the people photographed.

I wrote a short review the other day (Reflections on Photography -11/11/21) commenting on one of the photographs of one of her most personal projects where she photographed children and teenagers in a park (Eurana Park, Weatherly, Pennsylvania, USA), photo this , charged with strong magic. After her father’s death, she returns to this place that holds memories of her childhood life.

But the photographer has other projects or series of a social nature with photographs of people who express their strong position against wars, in fact the same position and feeling as the author. She verbatim says that she was only able to take such photographs from the day she realized this feeling inside her. And it is about these photographs that I would like to comment. The central aspect I want to focus on here is the ability of the photographs from this Judith Joy Ross project to stamp their anti-war feelings on people’s faces. For me, in the photographs presented below, this feeling is so vivid that it jumps out at the eyes of those who see them.

The photographer’s choice is to photograph people expressing their anti-war feelings and not others that can be considered true clichés in this type of work, ie people usually lined up carrying protest banners and posters and usually found shouting slogans typical of these movements.

(all photographs by Judith Joy Ross)

photobook {.R.U.R.A.I.S.} (rural workers from Brasil)

portraits, rural workers

{R.U.R.A.I.S.}

To purchase my book, contact me directly on facebook by message, or on my website https://www.antoniomozetophotography.com, or on my instagram @magic_rectangle or on Editora Origin’s website https://www.editoraorigem. com.br/

Exhibition and sales of photographs of “RURAIS”: Casa Odisseia, Al. Min. Rocha Azevedo, 463 São Paulo from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm until 11/17/21.

Release of my first photobook called “RURAIS” (rural workers from Brazil)

Photography, portraits, Street photography

RURAIS is a book of black and white photographs of rural workers in Brazil published by Editora Origin which was curated by Juan Esteves and an exceptional graphic design by Roberto Weigand.

The book features 98 photographs (148 pages – 25cm high x 23cm wide) of various rural workers from four Brazilian states in their work environments and was beautifully printed in full black + yellow Pantone off set system on Masterblank 270g/m2 paper (front of laminated cover) and the inside in Munken Lyns Rough 120g/m2 paper with a print run of 500 by Gráfica e Editora Ipsis in September 2021.

Several of the photographs are accompanied by original chronicles written by me as a narrative about rural life in Brazil that also reflect my experience in the various photo sessions with rural workers portrayed in the book throughout the interior of the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as my childhood and adolescence memories lived in a rural area in the state of São Paulo.

The book will be released at the Casa de Cultura Odisseia (Al. Ministro Rocha Azevedo, 463 SÃO PAULO, SP) on 10/23/2021 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, when some photographs of my project will also be exhibited till 11/17/2021. Book and photos will be for sale locally, as well as being purchased directly from me.

A release live will be held on the website of the Festival Hercule Florence coordinated by Ricardo Lima and with mine and the participation of Juan Esteves (book curator) on 10/21/2021 at 19:00 to be published in social media in the near future (facebook and instagram). ON THIS OCCASION WE WILL SELECT COPIES OF THE BOOK AMONG THE PARTICIPANTS.