TIME

• Prize
• Photographer
  Fifi Tong, Brazil
• Studio
  Fifi Tong Producoes Fotograficas

"Time", is a series of portraits of people who has lived for 100 years or more, living in
Brazil.The photographs are shot with natural light, at their homes. I travel to many
cities in Brazil, searching for these centenarians. The project intends to be published as
a book.

Nowadays, life is prolonged in time, and that was unthinkable, decades ago: you can see
how good it is, by looking at these portraits I’m taking.
We can think of a longer perspective in the future to a lot more people in the planet. And
we ask ourselves: what will we accomplish until then? Or rather, what have we accomplished
so far, gives us the energy to get there?

These people have stories and maybe these stories are the key to understanding.
These stories may bring us a life lesson, a lesson on how to keep living.

These centenarians who cross my path, show me many things in their expressions: people
inhabited by life and that has understood so much.
They become quieter, as if the excess of words is a futility.
An image is like them, quiet. An image whispers something so we can pay attention.

So this work asks us all: do we look at them as if we want to learn?
This work puts the elderly at a level of importance, the importance that the art of the
portrait puts the person being photographed.

And their looks: sometimes questioning, sometimes contemplative, is always unsettling,
their eyes ask: do you see me?

In an era where eternal youth is exalted, creating misshapen faces, by the desire to stop
time - those who submit to many tricks to look forever young - these old looks, the skin
marked and designed by the years, what do they want to tell us?

These images, are images that disturb and pacify.

• Awards
  Solo Exhibitions Origin – Espaço Cultural Furnas, Rio de Janeiro, march 2013 Origin - Shopping Moóca, august 2012 Origin - Museum of Contemporary Art, Salta, Argentina, august 2012 Time is Passing - Centro Cultural Recoleta, XVII Encuentros Abiertos , august 2012. Um Lugar Só Seu – contemporary work. Espaço de Arte Trio, São Paulo, Brazil,April 2012 Origin - Museum of Contemporary Art, Salta, Argentina, March 2011 Origin-Escola Prof. Carmelino José Dalsenter, Pompéia, São Paulo, September 2010 Origin- Centro Cultural Borges, , XVI Encuentros Abiertos, August 2010 Origin - Centro Cultural Taiguara, Poá, São Paulo, August 2010 Origin- Museu Histórico Voluntários da Pátria, Araraquara, São Paulo, May 2010 Origin - Memorial do Imigrante, São Paulo, August 2009 Sem Brincadeira - B&W portraits of children, Teatro São Pedro, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1994 Sem Brincadeira - B&W portraits of children, Museu Imagem e Som, São Paulo, 1993 Selected Group Exhibitions / Awards / Books / Publications Exhibit, Jornada da Longevidade, at Memorial da America Latina, São Paulo, october 2013 Exhibit, O Mais Parecido Possível- O Retrato, at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, october 2012 Origin, published in 6mois, magazine edited in Paris, September 2012 Book Origin, 3º place, best Book Pro Category, International Photography Awards (IPA), 2010 Exhibit Eternal Feminine Plural , at the International Labour Organization, Geneve, 2010 Cover story from Foto Mundo, Magazine, September 2010 Publication of book Origem –(ORIGIN - Portraits of Families in Brazil), with 51 black and white portraits of families. (Published by Auana), 2009 Porto Seguro Photography Awards, collective exhibit, São Paulo, 2009- 12 portraits for the book ATITUDE, (Published by Auana), 2008 Photos for the book Expedicionários, chapter Antonio Vieira. (Published by Auana), 2008 Editorial From Mother to Daughter, published in Top Magazine, May issue, 2004 Photos for the book “Animi”, by Alexandra Tait, published in Switzerland, 2003 Cover story from Iris Foto Magazine, December issue, 1991 Photos for the book “ Traditional Spanish Food ”, by Inês Mendonça Petit, 1986 Photo published in “Best of College Photography Annual”,1983 Granted scholarship from Art Center College of Design, 1983 Awarded first place in the contest “Children with no Frontiers”, Porto Alegre, Brazil,1979