In my schedule as a photo-journalist there was a simple task: follow the Brazilian Olympic Boxing team which will represent Brazil in London.
Three weeks later the article was ready. Art Directors and editors were happy but I was not sure I had told the story I saw behind the eyes. That seemed like an off-Broadway two-act theatrical drama from the 80´s: Directed roles, orchestrated speeches … everything fitted. I could feel a different aura distant from the daily routine I could document through my lens.
So, I decided to get closer but less noticed with a smaller camera just to blend in and get into the lives of these fighters. I tried to understand what could possibly take somebody out of the certain to the improbable and unexpected. Then, I could feel the pain out of those punches, not only practiced in the dome but also developed daily through drained-out bodies symbiotically working with uncertainty and inquietude.
One of the boxers, a girl who owned her place to the Olympics, after her training and completely wet said to me, “Turn your hands into fists, then some punches are like musical notes: you got a lot of combinations”.
In this dialogue between sweat, tears and dreams, I put my feelings in order to des-construct perfectionism and tell a bit of the story that comes from the pain and the pleasures from lives whose struggles out of violence and dignity is to forge a way to being respected, noticed and, who knows, loved.
With that in mind, the process of capturing images in low-light scenes that demands more pixels, fissures and spots which placed me closer to these people who give and go for a Slap in the face every day early in the morning as breakfast.
From the city of São Paulo, born in September, 1965
Based in São Paulo - Brazil
independent photographer
Graduated in Economics and Journalism from Unesp
Post-graduate studies in photography at Centro Universitário SENAC
Since 2007, member of the advisory board at Anhembi Morumbi University for the Photography course
Member of the sub-committee of design and photography at ANJ from 2003 to 2010
For 13 years, worked at Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, working as photographic reporter, coordinator of subjects, specials editor, adjunct editor and, between 2006 and 2009, photography editor-in-chief
Currently developing authorial projects in photography, also devoting himself to research and study of mobile photography and its new mechanisms of capturing and distributing images. Member of the international collective UAIPhone.
“In my photography I try to reach my inner drawers in their most secret emotions, a true kaleidoscope of feelings inherent to viewing and to living.
The pleasure of telling stories by means of images is the great motivation of my life.”
Awards Exhibitions
2013 – 4th SP Samsung Photography Exhibition – Coletiva Mural SP – Galeria
Ophicina – São Paulo - SP
2012 - Artists Watend - ART TAKES Times Square – Exhibition in street gallery. In the classic big screens in Times Square – New York - NY
2012 – Photography Festival - Foto em Pauta Tiradentes. – Participation in 3
exhibitions in the festival. Tiradentes - MG
2012 – Exhibition of f:2.8’s gallery opening - - Digressões – Guest Artist - São Paulo - SP
2012 – 3rd SP photography exhibition - Galeria Posto 6
2012 - Expo On-line #7Carnavais - on Blog 7 Setefotografia
2011 – Collective exhibition 7th Festival de fotografia Paraty em Foco. Main stand.
2011 - Unidades Instagram - Galeria Armazém Piola
2011 - Inspira.Ação - Galeria #Alberta3
2011 - “Por la No Discriminación en la Educación – Perspectivas desde América
Latina y el Caribe” - UNESCO headoffice in Paris - Collective
2010 - Direto na Educação - Buenos Aires - Espaço expositivo CTERA - Collective
2010 "A educação é um direito" - Memorial América Latina - Coletiva
2009 - Person to Person, ArtsWestchester, White Plains - NY
1996 - Cineastas, na Galeria do Espaço Unibanco de Cinema - São Paulo - SP
1992 - Em busca da cidadania perdida – Galeria Tendal – São Paulo – SP
1986 - Fotografias – Mecânico Criativo, Graffiti Galeria de arte – Bauru - SP
Contests and awards
2013 – Instaforfan Awards – Galeria Insta4fun – Winner – first place
2012 - Artists Watend - ART TAKES Times Square – Honorable Mention
2012- IPPA - iPhone Photography Awards - Honorable Mention - Children
2012- IPPA - iPhone Photography Awards - Honorable Mention - Landscape
2011- MPA Mobile Photo Awards – Nominee – Honorable Mention
2011 - Artists Watend - Year in Review – Among the 50 finalists
2011- IPA - International Photography Awards - Nominee – Honorable Mention
2010 - Aperture Portfólio Prize - Participant
2009 - New York Photo Festival, Nominee
2009 - PREMIO ESSO - "No Coração da Antártida" – First place
2008 – Best photography editor in Brazil. Fotosite magazine award
2007 – Best edition: Coverage of the air accident with TAM airplane in São
Paulo. Grande Prêmio Folha. Folha de São Paulo newspaper
2006 - Best edition: Coverage of the attacks from the criminal group (PCC) which stopped São Paulo. Grande Prêmio Folha. Folha de São Paulo newspaper
2005 – Award in the Special News Topics category, for the coverage and edition of the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 - SND- The Society for News
Design
2004 – Award in the Special News Topics and Breaking News categories, for the coverage and edition of the death of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004
1998 – Award in the Breaking News and Special News Topics categories, for the coverage and edition of the World Soccer Cup in France in 1998.
SND- The Society for News Design
