Pan-American School of Arts of São Paulo
Photography Collective 2017
Curated by Rosely Nakagawa
Exhibition | Efúgio
Sponsored by Canon | Digipix
Good morning friends of the light, still talking about contest I was thinking about this,
“the fear of exposing oneself” I this important topic of the photography course, I will reflect with you.
It is a fact that after the social networks we all gave the face to the world with or without filter are there, some more discreet others more apparent but all there, in the course of photography we had to learn to expose and face to face the reaction of people, in my case I had the best teacher in the world, well it’s that thing, isn’t it, hearing the truth hurts, or you react, or you die, and I was never one to die, so I cried, but I reacted, then I had the opportunity through my college to participate in two contests, small only in the college but sponsored by major brands and curated by big names in art. I had my photos exhibited in both, they were a collective, so we had many participants in the exhibition.
Today I want to talk about just one, the last one, I was doing volunteer work at a nursing home and decided to do a photography project there, my friends and family and actually anyone who doesn’t understand photography and art thinks that an exhibition is made of random photos and that you easily put them together in one afternoon and voilà, we have an exhibition,
but no, I worked for a year on this project, every Wednesday and Sunday, in the beginning I just talked, watched the morning light, others I went to in the afternoon, I had coffee, made the bed, talked about life, listened about life, I helped in the kitchen and had coffee, I saw joys and a lot of sadness and after living there a lot I started to photograph, many images were already ready, I knew what I wanted, and others were just chance, I went back and forth many times with my images to the curatorship, and some days I was thrilled, others I wanted to give up participating since it was optional, although I had reached my goal, I still did not feel safe, I thought I could do it, I thought I could do it.
Felt safe, I thought, but who would want to see this, and why would anyone find this cool, or I couldn’t see a meaning, a story, all that touched me deeply, but it is very difficult to expose your vision about anything, because after all everything is a matter of interpretation so many people may not identify, although at that moment I just wanted one person to be touched, the curator but yes of course we go from heaven to hell but during the whole year I was trained to learn to receive the no, this is not good, or does not meet what I expect, and I learned that the rejection of the other has no relation with me is about him, of course it is my professional duty to present the technical conditions of a photograph with excellence, but the essence of the photo is me who decides.
The essence of the photo is me who decides, and you may like it or not that is more about what
you identify with.
So, be sure of your basis, of your principles and go with everything
without fear, without shame.
Lesson from life; worth remembering, and it’s a very strong point, many people will try to discourage you, just don’t listen and go.
