A Look at the Portuguese World

 

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The walking photographer

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Duarte Belo has done thousands of kilometers in order to capture Portugal. It is a photographer who has a portfolio of more than one million images, from the deepest Minho, to the most overlooked Alentejo to the mid-Atlantic islands, which aims to show what is yet to discover of the most extraordinary in our country .

How would you define your photography?
Duarte Belo: My photography is mostly of landscapes and architecture. There's one more documentary than artistic aspect, although the image is nonetheless an interpretation.

Is photography a mystery or not ?
DB : I think yes, it will always be because it is the mystery of life itself that photography tells us, shows us.

The choice of topics that you photographed falls mainly on landscapes and arquictetura is it because of your background in architecture ? And I speak not only photographies of monuments in on your images there is a search for the lines and by the forms.
DB : It is no doubt. I was already doing photography before arquitecture and after with it delved much to my sensitivity to the issue of forms and landscape .

  

So how do you difference yourself ? How do you look to a monument to be different from other photographers ?
MB : Maybe I'm not the best person to answer that, but I think all photographers are seeking innovative points of view, the way it photographs a plan, like looking for lighting situations that are unusual at night with an artificial light or with different ways to show the uniqueness of a monument and the way we interpret it.

You also bring that same baggage to the landscapes ?
MB : Yes without a doubt. Seeking more about the landscapes Portugal , try to show the great diversity of urban settlements and situations that exist. I think are extraordinary and I think very few photographers pay attention to that.

From all the projects you began with many themes on Portugal, which one gave more pleasure ?
DB : They all give me a lot of pleasure, then end up becoming painful because it will never end, it was a case of " Portugal heritage ", which came out in 10 volumes in the circle of readers, but perhaps the one that gave me the most pleasure and perhaps for being the first and for being a great voyage thru Portugal, was the " flavor of the earth." It was a whole project in black and white and film, with fieldwork between 1995 and 1997 and gave me a huge joy, because it was the discovery of a country , had many places that did not know . After the " Portugal heritage " was even greater, bigger, there were 4 years of fieldwork and continued with the feeling that our country is immense and with much to discover. Whith the " flavor of the earth " I thought I knew Portugal , then when finished " Portugal heritage " knew little without a doubt, its diversity is very extense.

When you think on the picture it comes naturally? I know you do a lot of hiking and these routes you soon find these regards? Or are you more careful ? And looking for these points first before shooting?
MB : No, I 'm walking and shoot at the same time, I am not in a given situation and wait for the light, or use a tripod for a particular type of image. For me photography has an increasing documentary nature, which is different from painting in which the person is in front of his easel. I like the motion picture, photograph along the route, I get to do more than 1500 images in a day. I do not have a fixed location, but photograph various things that catch my attention .

You considered yourself a professional photograph or an artist photographer ?
DB : The two things are not incompatible, but I consider myself more of a photographer documentalist than an artist. Although, in certain level is difficult to separate these two aspects of the photographic look, because there is often documentalism in photography that has a very strong character, and then there are other aspects, at the margins the contemporary photography that explores other branches, but I consider myself heir to the long tradition of photography and I think the documentary and artistic contaminate each other starting from a certain point .

So what remains to be discovered in documentary photography which is where you like to known?
DB : I think documentary photography in this digital age, still has much to give. Before, in the analog photography, we had a lot to think about before taking a picture, now we have more possibilities without this concern we had with the film . Each photo you took in the past had a certain cost and now feels much less obviously it still has a cost, but is smaller. A number of new devices, mobile phones, for example, allow us to do photograph situations that never will considered before and everything is more affordable. The world nowadays is more photographed than 10 years ago, the great challenge of photography is to show new things that have never been seen in a different way, both of the human condition, as the very landscapes that have little human intervention .

Now you hunched in a new work ?
MB: I have a project is the " horizon Portugal " and seeks to provide online my archive of photographs that has about a million pictures. I will not post by dates, but a very significant part where I pass thru. I, for one, was in 4000 almost all parishes before this administrative reform, I had photographed more than 10 thousand places, villages, towns and cities .

So in the midst of so many photographies which is the criterion of choice?
DB : The criterion is often geographic, I have to take notes when I walk in the fieldwork , it is critical because I have too many things and then I have to have a well organized file to know where it is each photograph and it is all dated . Then depending on what is asked about a certain region on which I am working, I will search in my files these places .

It is curious, you provide these works online because there is very little on this subject?
DB : I think it's an asset to the knowledge of our country. I have firm belief and I have no doubts about that, that very few Portuguese are knowledgeable about their territory and have done several presentations and lectures and the reaction of the people was astonished, how come there are these places in Portugal and we still do not know? I think our country in this time of crisis in which we live has huge potential, or may have on the landscape, the architecture of places and its value in terms of tourism and culture especially has great economic potential and the political class in Portugal not the slightest idea about its value, there are other countries which are more developed in this view .

When you intend to have it all online ?
DB: It 's already online horizonteportugal.org , which is also a manifestation of intent that I hope very soon to be full of very broad places. Let's see if I can , I'm working with two computer engineers.

Is there any part of Portugal, however small it may be, that was not been the target of your eyes ?
DB : There are, I have a list of places to photograph, I write notes. Many places are small but are extremely interesting , some were altered by the passage of time, of course. It never stops this work on Portugal .

But, how do you discover these locations ? You do a research discovering new sites , or you go to maps, or someone suggests you a local ?
DB : All that, it is often a friend who says to go to a particular site, other times in my internet searches find photos of places that I do not know, others still , I cannot find the place, not sure where they are located over the internet. Then I make literature searches, sometimes in books of geology is something unlikely to find places, but are very interesting geographical references, over rocks and soils that are worth visiting.

http://duartebelo.com/
http://www.horizonteportugal.org/

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