Tell us about your approach to photography. How it all started? What are your memories of your first shots?
My approach to photography happened in 2004 when I attended a photojournalism discipline during an exchange of 6 months in Brazil. It was when I started to have interest in the photography possibilities.

How did your research evolve with respect to those early days?
I only attended some short photography courses, all the rest have been based on a self-taught knowledge. Also, by seeing the work of photographers that I like.

3. Tell us about your educational path. (fill in school) What are your best memories of your studies? What was your relationship with photography at that time?
I have a degree in Social Communications, with specialization in Advertising.
Although, at this time, photography wasn’t part of my life, some of the disciplines were focused on the development of creativity and imagination, which was important. In other hand, the course covered several areas from social psychology, philosophy and sociology that, somehow, led me, later, to seek to new paths.

What were the courses that you were passionate about and which have remained meaningful for you?
During my degree there was a discipline that was special because was very free and comprehensive. The works that we had to do could be of any field, from writing to theater, photography, performance, and it was very rewarding, important to open new horizons.
Apart from that, the photography workshops I attended were also essential to guide my work. It’s important to confront it with other points of view, different eyes, new possibilities come from that.

Any professor or teacher that has allowed you to better understand your work?
I had many teachers who were important, some more than others, but I can highlight the photography professor that I had in Brazil because it was from that moment that I became involved in photography. He was very enthusiastic, very interested and influenced the students with his enthusiasm and motivation.



What do you think about photography in the era of digital and social networking?
I accept the digital age and I think it can be fully valid, the medium is not the focus. The same for social networking, I think it has some advantages, especially for sharing and finding information. But, in general, I think there’s an exaggeration in all of this. Too much time looking at a screen, and less time in the real world, looking to real things, with real people. I think very bad that has become almost mandatory to be in a social network. I feel much more connected to the analog world, and increasingly apart from the social networks, more fan of conversations around a coffee table.

About your work now. How would you described your personal research in general?
The main focus of my work is my life. All of my by past and current project are around some personal event or feeling. In this way, my interest is to explore my family history, connections, events, to ask people to tell me histories about the place where I grew up. I search for these curiosities, strange coincidences and my ancestry’s life.

10. Do you have any preferences in terms of cameras and format?
I work is, mainly, done is 35mm. It is, until now, my preference. I use more than one type of camera, depending of the situation and my mood, but I like to make the act of photographing simple, I don’t like to use tripod, for example.

11. Your choice for black & white?
It was a natural choice until now; I don’t see any of my previous works in color. I don’t have a real reason; just see them in black and white. But I don’t exclude the use of color in the future.

12. Tell us about the project 'Sob Vigia Dos Animas Antigos'
This is an ongoing project about the place where I grew up, the changes of this place and also my relation with it. I don’t know when it will end, at this moment; I like the idea of keep working on that, an open project with no time to end.

13. In 'Penedo branco' different layers of images overlap. What do you want to tell through this series.
I did this series thinking about the relation of people with nature, having, again, my village as a starting point. I was interested in the idea of a nature that comes to conquer again its place. It is slowly taking the place of the humans, like a return to the beginning. This was my nuclear idea, this expression of nature.

14. Is there any contemporary artist or photographer, even if young and emerging, that influenced you in some way?
Yes, in different ways. For example, the poetic work of Eva Wollenberg. Also, Jon Cazenave and Trent Park. All the work of Werner Herzog is quite inspiring, like his book ‘Of Walking In Ice’ about his journey on foot from Munich to Paris. Just to mention some.

15. Could you tell us about the Portoguese photo scene...
I think there’s some very interesting Portuguese photographers nowadays, emerging artists; in other hand, I think we are a country caring not very much about culture.

16. Three books of photography that you recommend?
I can mention some books I really like: Masahisa Fukase, The Solitude of Ravens; Jungjin Lee , Unnamed Road ; Raymond Meeks , Where Objects Fall Away; Filipe Casaca, Blue Mud Swamp.

17. Is there any show you’ve seen recently that you find inspiring?
Recently, the exhibition of Helena Almeida, in Serralves Museum, Porto.

18. Projects that you are working on now and plans for the future?
I’m working in a new project and new exhibitions, apart from that, no plans, just enjoying the surprises life brings.