Photography & Creative Process Blog
The Art of Discipline
35mm Film Photos, Portugal & Italy, 2019 — Personally, I often find comfort in discipline, it is what I know and what often brings me back to myself. And yet on this journey into my creative self through photography and writing, I have often asked myself … How much discipline is the right amount? What code of rules must one adhere to? Who makes the rules? How can you push yourself to be better — a better version of yourself — to achieve your goals, and at the same time accept yourself for who you are right now?
A Garden and A Fig Tree
35mm Film Photos, Sintra & Lisbon, Portugal — This post is about pursuing the Artist’s Dream. And it’s about finding identity and purpose with determination and self-confidence. Today in the woods, I thought I have always found comfort in looking up. Up to the trees and up to the sky. It gives me a sense of relief and space – and maybe perspective. Looking up also reminds me that, on many of the occasions in which I felt like I was failing miserably, I wasn’t really doing what I wanted …
Le Chiacchiere Stanno a Zero – Order and Integrity Out Of Chaos
Saturday 18th of April 2020. COVID19 Self-Isolation Day #36. State of Emergency Day #30. I went out this morning at 6:30 am with a slight sense of dread. A slight sense of … what the hell am I doing out here at this time of the morning? Am I out here enjoying the beautiful view, in these times? The light is beautiful and, obviously, nobody is around. I reflect on why I love taking photos without people so much … I thought about all the projects I had in mind over the years and never brought to life, all those that involved people, that in fact put people in the very centre.
I might be a morning person, after all
Last Sunday morning I was out on my third “dawn urban adventure”. Everywhere is a lot emptier than last Saturday. Easter Sunday makes this morning particularly quiet and unique. The light is perfect, the sun has risen but it is just behind a thick cloud which diffuses the light of the morning in a photo-perfect way. I shoot a whole roll, Fomapan 400 ISO Black & White (I wish I had one with higher ISO for grain). This place speaks in enigmas … you have to guess shapes and former uses, reconstruct lost meanings, connect with a silent and forgotten past. A thought, is my attraction about connection?
Normal But Different
I wake up at 5:59. The horizon in the direction of Cais do Sodre is on fire. The clouds are burning as the sun slowly rises in the East — just the direction I am riding toward. Feels like riding toward the fire. I get off the bike and start to walk, I plan to arrive in Rossio, no further than that. No plan and to just keep my eyes open. Everything is peaceful and silent, a few cars driving around. A strange mixture of sadness, anger and fear fills my heart. I get angry at the shop lights for being still on. And then I realise: I am not angry, I am just scared and sad and can’t really fully understand what is going on, how exceptional this moment is.