Sara Bettencourt - Photo Mário Pires

On the previous post, i talked about the genesis of this portrait series, but after the general theme i needed to narrow it down further, and decide who to photograph and where to find them.
The gender issue was clear to me, i’ve always loved photos of woman smoking, so that choice was easy. But i needed a way to find woman willing to smoke in front of the iPhone4 camera. Asking random woman on the street is not something i’m confortable in doing, i needed a different approach. Then i remembered that i already followed some woman that smoke on twitter, and figured that i could tweet them an invitation to pose. At this point i already made 4 portrait sessions, so this method turned out to be a good choice.

Sandra Gaspar / Photo: Mário Pires

Having left my Lumix in the closet, and relaying almost exclusively on the iPhone for all my photo needs, i wanted to put myself and the iPhone to the test. Thinking about possible challenges, i remembered that i never did a portrait session.
Portraits are a bit vague, how could i make a series that makes some sense and it’s within my reach ?
I also wanted to draw some attention to it, so it would need a element of defiance. I remembered some talks i had with fellow photographers about wonderful portraits of women smoking. Smoking has gained a rather negative aura in recent times, and because of it the defiance element would be smoke.
Having established portraits of people smoking as the main theme, i needed to narrow it down a bit in order to establish some logistics that i could master for some time.

• Where to find people to photograph ?
• How to ask them ?
• Which gender and age ?

Those questions will be answered in the next post

Photo: Mário Pires

A good example of a series all done in a few hours using just the iPhone, is Coimbra C in Lomoville, an online platform, curated by Susana Paiva, for all photography projects created with plastic lenses or toy cameras and mobile phone cameras

O.D. series - Photo: Mário Pires

P. series - Photo: Mário Pires

Subway series - Photo: Mário Pires

B.C. series - Photo: Mário Pires

I always think of series, regardless of the imaging device i’m using. From the moment i surpassed an “amateur” mindset and started to think about the concept of a “series”, i’ve never been able to work differently. Even when i’m not consciously thinking about it, after some time, a series emerges and i can’t help but notice and pursue it.
These photos are from series i’m developing now, all produced with the iPhone4 (the subway series has some photos that where shot with a Nokia device, but edited on iOS devices).

I bought a Glif tripod mount for the iPhone4, now i can secure it to a tripod and avoid camera shake in some situations.
The only problem i see with it is the need to take the phone out of it’s protecting case. But it was inexpensive, and until the Jumba from Canopy becomes available, it will have to do.

Palm tree, Photo: Mário Pires

In January 2010 i made a list of photo projects i wanted to develop in 2010, a year later it’s time to access the status of those.

Chiado Project

The “7 Visões no Chiado” project was successfully completed, It was shown in Lisboa, Vila Nova de Paiva and Coimbra (more dates coming soon). I made a series of blog posts about it. I wish to take it to Porto and back to Lisbon before the end of the year.

Prazeres Graveyard

I did three sessions on this project, and was unable to advance it further. But after i had Brenda Turnnidge review the work, i lost some doubts i had about the focus of the work. I expect to be able to schedule some more sessions in the spring.

MobileOne

I started this series with Nokia mobile phones, then i added a iPod Touch and iOS photo apps, and then the iPhone4. it’s no longer a series, it’s body of work that grows everyday! The iPhone is constatly with me and i haven’t used the Lumix in months. The camera is good enough and all the photo applications that i can mix and match give me endless creative opportunities. We can be mobile artists with nothing but this small device!

“T” Project

Postponed. Without a couple that knows how to T, it can’t be done right.

4 Cars…

I finished photographing for the project and then got some doubts about the whole series. It’s sleeping in the archives until i pick it up again and start editing it into the final form.

And for 2011 ?

Publishing some POD books is my goal, hope i can pull it off.

And it was that time of year again, 04-04-2010 at 4a.m. Once again, Karen Stunks, put together the global gathering of heroic insomniacs, eager to go out and photograph when there is no one else on the street (except other photo manics like ourselves).

This time we went to the pleasant Sintra, and clicked away for a hour, in the most pure silence (except for the clicks from the slr’s).

It was a fun experience, congratulations Karen, and see you all next year!

António Colaço from the blog Ânimo did a short interview about the “7 visões do Chiado” exhibition (in portuguese).

António Colaço do blog Ânimo entrevistou-me acerca da exposição “7 Visões no Chiado”. A ele o meu obrigado.

Visão 3 - Poeta Chiado

Texto de Apresentação da Exposição “7 Visões no Chiado“

O Chiado é uma das zonas mais emblemática de Lisboa. Há muito que está presente nas letras portuguesas e faz parte dos hábitos da capital. Muitos dos seus ex-libris são igualmente lugares comuns fotográficos.

Ao aceitar o desafio de fotografar o Chiado, apenas tinha a certeza de que não queria caminhar por trilhos já demasiado pisados. Não tendo pretensões a originalidade, escolhi tratar o tema de modo a reflectir sobre as dúvidas que sinto em relação ao papel da fotografia como “descritora” da realidade e às falhas desse modelo.

Porquê escolher um único ponto de vista quando podemos ter vários ? Acredito que um dos papéis da arte é o de mostrar que a realidade tem muitos sentidos, muitos mais do que aqueles que os sentidos nos revelam. Espero apenas contribuir para que possam descobrir maneiras diferentes de olhar o Chiado.

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“7 Visões no Chiado” Presentation

Chiado is one of the most enjoyable places in Lisbon, it has been like that for centuries, and it’s most memorable spots are also the more photographed.

When i accepted the challenge of photographing the theme, i was sure that i did not want to travel the same roads as everybody else. I didn’t tried to be “original”, i just wanted to reflect the doubts i have about the role of photography as a rendering of reality.

Why choose just one point of view when we can have multiple ones ? I believe that one of the roles of art is to show us that reality has more to offer us than what the senses tell us.

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Visão 4 - O eléctrico vermelho

A exposição está oficialmente inaugurada!

The show is open!