N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A,
a blog about photography by Sofia Silva
caption: detail from Dioso Simões’ booklet in Propeller Propaganda. Deisgn by Paulo Arraiano. When we asked Diogo to collaborate with Propeller Propaganda, there was a lot of possibilities in the air and no pre-established idea of what he could publish. After some options were dropped, the series of photographs we then published was suggested, but…
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More about São Trindade’s work Dead Inside can be seen here. More about São Trindade’s book Bad Liver and a Broken Heart can be seen here.
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image caption (above): © Margarida Gouveia, Beautiful People #1, poster for Propeller #3 – Propaganda, 2019. More of Margarida’s recent work can be seen here. These black-and-white photographs constitute an imaginary that calls to mind scientific and forensic photography. They are imbued with a sense of strangeness and of a hygienic and strictly functional world in…
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Photo caption: Amanda Feilding and Birdie Propeller‘s crew is responsible for introducing me to Helen MacDonald‘s H is for Hawk. When we started working together they’d frequently talk about the book and stress out how I would love it. I never doubted I would, but kept wondering what associations led them all to feel so…
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Photo caption: Nagika taking a shit while staring at the sun I moved to the region where I currently live in the Summer of 2016. It’s quiet here and silence becomes truly special. From that moment on, I’ve learnt to love birds. I think that started one night when a owl (Athene noctua) began to…
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Everything is workshopable these days. It’s an amazing thing. We can either learn to do things watching youtube videos or we can learn pretty much every technique attending workshops about this and that. As I see it, there’s clearly something weird about this. I’m not sure what it is, but somehow it affects the way…
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I met Duarte and Valter when doing my undergrad in photography. Both were my teachers and tutors and for quite some time that was the role assigned to them. In September 2008 brief notes were made about both of them. At the time, Valter was working with José Nuno Lamas, exploring landscape, performance and play. Duarte was finding his…
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Nature often makes us question whether we deserve her generosity. She’s so marvelous, so compassionate, so warming… Yes, she can also be deceiving and violent, but that’s what makes her so sublime. The fact that in this country, always socially and politically adrift, we manage to stay calm and collected, must be somehow related to…
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As is becoming ever more often, another student’s work sets ground @ Nihilsentimentalgia. Carlos was my student for the past year and the selection of work featured here, about his family, caught my attention. These images are part of a larger project about Carlos’ grandmother, Engrácia, with 84 years old, who lives with her husband, Alexandre, 81,…
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Being a teacher is an everyday learning experience. We’re challenged in very different ways: either because we need to learn how to teach, either because we need to find ways to potentiate their vision. They trust us and that’s a huge responsibility. When I started at it, 6 years ago, I struggled to find my place, but students…
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The other day, while being guided through an exhibition by its own curator, I asked him why a particular work was being showcased as a slideshow when the author in question is exceptional at photographic printing processes. The answer was clear: “I really don’t care about the materiality of the work”. It shouldn’t come as…
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April, 2015: Público, a daily newspaper, published an article by author Vítor Belanciano entitled Esqueçam as grandes marcas, o verdadeiro luxo é a autenticidade (“Forget the big brand, the real luxury is authenticity”), following a conference organized by Monocle, which brought together, in Lisbon, an elite of market groupies from all over the world, ready…
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Everything’s wrong with this sort of competitions, yet they’re necessary to keep the art market alive. There are very few art prizes in Portugal and they tend to promote the most conceptual approach to contemporary art practices, one of the reasons the results are always controversial. This week (or the week before, it’s fuzzy) Fnac…
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all images © Cliff Andrade, from the project Saudade. Although I enjoy landscape photography very much, I often get bored by the way some photographers build their documentary projects around it, as if the mountain and its goats spoke the same language. They don’t. On this note, Cliff Andrade’s project Saudade (about Madeira) was a…
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Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique, 2013/2014 Sofia Silva, Untitled, from L’Hasard Photographique,…
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This conversation took place in July 2014, over the virtual space of Lisbon and Brazil. The original, portuguese version, of this conversation, can be seen HERE. Sofia: This conversation is driven by your recent book featuring the work done in Azores. I have a few questions about the images, but I’ll pose them later on. For…
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all images © Isaac Pereira. Courtesy of the artist. This conversation took place in July 2014, over the virtual space that unites Macau and Lisboa. The original, portuguese version, of this conversation, can be seen HERE. Sofia: We’re having this conversation mainly because of your exhibition, Tree, now held in Macau. Although I couldn’t be…
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The important thing is that the photograph possesses an evidential force; and that its testimony bears not on the object but on time. From a phenomenological viewpoint, in the Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation. R. Barthes Last week, after a tv news report, I came across a story about a…
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© Nádia Rodrigues Ribeiro, Sem título (Untitled) – 11.07.12, from Flora. Negative in chromogenic paper, chromogenic process, unique print 12x9cm. © Nádia Rodrigues Ribeiro, Sem título (Untitled) – 20.07.12, from Flora. Negative in chromogenic paper, chromogenic process, unique print 12x9cm. © Nádia Rodrigues Ribeiro, 215 Horas (215 Hours), from Flora, 2013. Diasec Print, 90x60cm. Sofia…
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When I first met Isaac’s work, one of my immediate deductions was regarding his very deep use of blacks and whites. After some years, I now know that his work is not defined by the use of black & white, but rather by the absence of colour, which in turn leads to very defined areas/lines/figures…
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N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 