Every year in September the traditional Odwira Festival is celebrated in Akuapem, Ghana, integrating multiple cultural, religious and traditional activities. Among them is Boxing.
This project includes two sets of images of various fightings taking place in that occasion in a crowded public square.
The first, consists of images that have been recycled and transformed into an abstract narrative that shows the movements and dynamics of the fighting. The second set perceptibly illustrates some details and the people who watched and vibrated with the successive fighting.
João Miguel Barros was born in 1958, in Lisbon, Portugal.
He is a Lawyer by profession, in Lisbon and Macau.
He was co-director of the SEMA culture and visual arts magazine published in Lisbon between 1979 and1982.
In 2017 began to exhibit his photography work, with individual exhibitions at “Creative Macau - Center for Creative Industries”, Macau (Feb. 2017) and at “Museu Berardo”, Belem Cultural Center, Lisbon, Portugal (from Feb. to Aug. 2018). He has participated in several group exhibitions.
He published two photobooks: “Between Gaze and Hallucination” (self-published) in 2018
Awards - Selected artist of YICCA - International Contest of Contemporary Art, Milan, 2017/18, with a photo for the project “Tribute”.
- 3º Award in the category “Press” of the Prix de la Photographie (PX3), Paris, with the project “Blood, Sweat and Tears”
- 1º Award in the category “Editorial / Sports (Non-Prof.) of the International Photography Awards, 2018, New York, with the project “Blood, Sweat and Tears”.
- Honorable Mention in the category “People: Other” of the ND Awards 2018, with the project “Tribute”.
- Honorable Mention in the category “Nature: Trees” of the ND Awards 2018, with the project “Loneliness Tree”.
