Currently browsing: English posts
Paco on the New York Times
The New York Times published today (started on page 1) a big piece on the effects of Paco Drug in Argentina, which João Pina had the change to spend quite a few time researching and shooting. Also for the first time João had the chance to shoot both stills and video pictures and also doing some reporting for the piece.
João Pina words: “it was quite an interesting experience, that now became a personal project to continue.”
Links to the story:
Fidel Castro
English: Fidel Castro, the last figure from the cold war, announced his oficial retirement from politics. Even though the winds of change are announced, his most likely substitue, the actual interin president of Cuba and Fidel’s brother Raul Castro, is known has the visible face of the internal repression. This is a body of work produced in the period of 6 years, spending more then 6 months inside of the last communist resort on the western hemisphere.
© João Pina . Click here to see the feature.
Portugês: Fidel Castro, o último protagonista da guerra fria, anunciou a sua retirada oficial da vída politica cubana. Apesar de tempos de mudança se anunciarem, o seu mais provavel substituto é o presidente interino de Cuba e seu irmão Raúl Castro, quem é conhecido dentro da ilha como a cara visível da repressão. Este é um trabalho efectuado ao longo de 6 anos e mais de 6 meses dentro do último reduto comunista do hemisfério ocidental.
© João Pina . Clique aqui para ver a galeria em destaque.
Moving Cinema
This man projected more than three thousand different movies and it like the most part. This man run over three millions kilometres carrying his machine. This man story oversized any script. This man in the photographs doesn’t exist, but they call him António Feliciano and you can find him in Vila Nova de Milfontes. This man story that doesn’t exist it could became a movie that also doesn’t exist.
© Moving Cinema - Alexandre Almeida. click here to see the feature/essay
Carnaval - Nazaré
” During Carnival, the nightmare of thedark winter days is forgotten.The whole town stops to take a breath and launches itself into the Entrudo each year as if there would never be another…”
“This Carnival madness begins on the day of St Brás, on 3rd February. This a completeley pagan festival. Dionysian,with no priests or masses, but rather bonfires, dances, chorizos and red wine. The devil is let loose. Boys and girls in fancy dress, competing to see who has the wildest costume, dance around the Mount of St Brás, some way outside town.They sing, jump onto the bonfire, climb Mount Siano to visit the chapel and its saint, throw kisses and make promises to meet secretly for amorous encounters, in preparation for the great festival of Carnival. This chain of festivities only stops when the effigy of the ‘ Santo Entrudo’ is burnt on the beach on Ash Wednesday.”
Text by Jaime Rocha, in the “Ensaiar, photographs by Valter Vinagre”. Assírio & Alvim, Lisbon. 2005
Translation by Karen Bennett
© 2005, Monte Siano, Nazaré - Valter Vinagre. click here to see the feature/essay
© 2002, Carnaval, Nazaré - Valter Vinagre. click here to see the feature/essay
Português:
” O Carnaval surge como o momento fulcral em se esquece o pesadelo dos dias negros de Inverno. A Nazaré pára para tomar fôlego e arranca para o Entrudo de cada ano como se não esperasse mais nenhum …”
” …Esta loucura carnavalesca tem o seu ínicio no dia de São Brás, a 3 de Fevereiro. Trata-se de uma festa totalmente pagã, dionisíaca, sem padres nem missas, com fogueiras , danças, enchidos e vinho tinto. É o diabo que se solta .Rapazes e raparigas ensaiados (mascarados) cada um a seu modo, qual deles o mais trapalhão, dançam em volta do monte de São Brás, situado a alguma distância da vila. Cantam,saltam à fogueira, sobem ao Monte Siano para uma visita à capela e ao santo, beijam-se e prometem amores clandestinos entre si, preparando-se para as grandes noites de Carnaval. Esta cadeia de festividades só pára quando o Santo Entrudo é queimado a corpo inteiro na areia da praia, na quarta-feira de cinzas.”
Texto de Jaime Rocha, no livro “Ensaiar, fotografias de Valter Vinagre”. Assírio & Alvim, Lisboa. 2005
© 2005, Monte Siano, Nazaré - Valter Vinagre. clique aqui para ver o ensaio fotográfio
© 2002, Carnaval, Nazaré - Valter Vinagre. clique aqui para ver o ensaio fotográfio
Pelo Teu Livre Pensamento | For Your Free Thinking
No passado dia 17 (Janeiro 2008) João Pina inaugurou “Por teu Livre Pensamento” na galeria Point of View Art Gallery em Nova Iorque. Este trabalho foi inagurado e exposto pela primeira vez no Centro Português de Fotografia no ano de 2007.
“For your free thinking” is an exhibition of provoking black and white photographs by João Pina.
While the photographs themselves are rich and expressive, it is the story behind these images that really captures the attention. The images are of prisoners who were punished for having ideals that conflicted with the Portugese government – a dictatorial regime that lasted more than 48 years.
The story of political prisoners is not new, but the thing that makes this series so compelling is the personal attachment Pina has with the project – two of his Grandparents were imprisoned during this regime for thinking differently than the fascist party.
“To me, being born with this heritage and seeing all my generation not being informed of what happened just a few years before we were born, created an unconformable feeling within me. I felt it was my task to recover their memory, otherwise they would pass on – as some already had – and their stories would go with them,” said Pina.
Pina decided to pair up with Rui Daniel Galiza, a Portuguese writer, to interview and record these people’s stories. This resulted in their book, “Por teu livre pensamento”, which is being released in a number of European countries. Signed copies of the book will also be available at the Point of View Gallery.
“In a way, this is my homage to the ones who still fight for what they believe in, not really caring if they have a high price to pay for saying what they think,” said Pina.
The photographs are a composition of original mug shots, portraits that mirror the mug shots, and formal portraits of each person in recent years. These portraits are shot with warmth and respect, giving each person the dignity they deserve.
João Pina is a young, emerging photographer who started shooting commercially at the age of 18. In 2001, he began to focus on documentary photography with the commencement of his “For your free thinking” project. In 2002 he started to document Cuba, hoping to be a privileged observer of the future of that country. Since then he has been focusing on political movements in Latin America. Most recently, Pina started to photograph conflicts both in Latin America and the “War on Terror” in Afghanistan. His work has been published in Newsweek, The New York Times, GEO, El Pais, EPS, LV Magazine, D Magazine, Days Japan, Le Fígaro and Visão among others. He is now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, working on the scars that the military dictatorships have left on the southern cone on South America.