*Caroline Sachs: Oh, no summer here! It's winter in Brazil. Although it's not nearly as defined as it is in America or Europe. It's crazy; like yesterday it was very hot during the day and all of sudden it dropped to eight Celsius. Go figure!*
Advertisement
Well, kind of. I went to college here in São Paulo, graduated in graphic design, but I wanted to go traveling so I sort of used this short course in fashion design at Central Saint Martins as an excuse to leave. I had already been shooting for a few years. Then I liked London and stayed there the whole year. In the meantime I applied for an MA to start the next year, this time in photography. When I got my offer letter I was all set to move to New York for a few months, so I did, and got a deferral for the next year. I wanted to stay abroad; it was not because of the money, especially because we pay a lot more than English students.
Well, when I first started there were only a couple of photography courses in my city, and I took one in documentary photography. They teach you to choose a theme, a project, something you can maybe even follow for years. On my search for that I photographed a bunch of things from a penitentiary, a few circuses, a mental institution for old ladies, a fishermen village on an island. You know, usual documentary type stuff. Then my graduation project for college was a bunch of self-portraits, where I designed the clothes, made them, chose locations, makeup, everything. And finally I got to my main body of work, which is actually my life, my travels, and the people I love. In the meantime I started doing stills for one of my friend's short films, and this same friend worked for this amazing theater company. I met the director and have been shooting all of their plays for three years now. Now that I'm actually settled somewhere I've been shooting portraits and a bit of fashion for magazines here too. But I still do theater, film, and my own work, which is what I love the most.
Advertisement
Exactly! I'm still getting my personal work organized to try and make money out of it. I just sold a couple of prints the other day and that was exciting. And my final project for the MA was a book of my work, which I loved doing, loved the whole process. And now I'm working on two follow-ups to make a little trilogy and try to get it published and exhibited.The photos I've seen seem very intimate and innocent in a way. What are you looking for?
It's a bit hard for me to explain, because when I'm shooting it's very organic. I shoot everything that catches my attention for some reason, maybe it's an expression, the light, the mood that person is in. One funny thing though is that I unconsciously only photograph people I like in my personal work.
There was this one time we went to a friend's farm and he brought a friend I didn't know and didn't like much at first. So there were pictures of everyone there but her. I only realized later when I got my film developed. Now she is my good friend and she always throws that in my face.
Not nature, really. I still photograph my friends, but a lot less often because we don't get to see each other that much and because the group is pretty much gone. And because, like I said, I've done a lot of traveling on my own or with friends I was not so close to, I ended up looking somewhere else for what I found in my loved ones, which after a lot of thinking and feeling I figured was silence. When I was doing the stills of a feature film last year it hit me!
Advertisement
I was shooting a lot and was not happy with any of it, it just felt like those pictures were not mine. And one day I realized it was because there were always too many people, too much stuff, waaay too many elements in all of them, I could find no peace, no silence and I realized that's the element I have always thought united all of my pictures, that's what I felt when I looked both at the portraits and the landscapes, but I could never quite put my finger on it. I guess that's what it is that I missed when I looked at the production stills, silence and maybe a bit of peace too. And I guess when I can't have my loved ones around I end up finding this silence, and even a bit of melancholy, out there, in landscapes.
Well, yes and no, I mean, I love the landscapes, but they make me sad too when I look at it all together, in all I shot in the past year. I miss the people in my work, I miss the group and their faces on my pictures, but don't take it the wrong way though. Hehe. I feel like this conversation is taking a funny turn. It's not like I'm miserable or anything.Do you have any funny stories?
Yeah, I guess I just made you my therapist for a few minutes, as I still understand all I just told you, so I kept on talking and talking here.
I don't know. Yeah, interview/therapy, I loved it!That'll be $100, please.RACHEL FAE COLEMAN
