Photojournalism: Honorable Mention 2023 (amateur)
ENTRY DESCRIPTION
They were born and raised with the sea right there, tempting, welcoming, challenging. Endless hours of playing in the warm, shallow waters of the bay stirred their imagination and inventiveness, pushing them to perfect their dives.
Freedom and a perfect communion with nature are their companions in everything they do, there is only water, earth and air between them and surrounding them. Nudity, just as innocent and natural as the water they dive into, is one of the expressions of that freedom and communion, bringing additional beauty to these moments of pure fun.
AUTHOR
I was born in Angola 56 years ago but the war of independence in that country forced my family to restart their life in Portugal, where I completed my law studies. After practicing law for a few years, I worked in banking and finance. In 2007, responding to a strong call from my homeland, I returned to Angola to work on auditing and consulting projects focused on social development. I have always had a great attraction for the arts and the passion for photography definitely emerged with the acquisition of my first camera when I was around 20 years old. Although I published several articles in Portuguese travel and leisure magazines, photography was dormant for long years due to the demands of my work. The return to Angola, with the daily coexistence with the sounds, smells, and colors of Africa, awakened in me an enormous desire to portray people and tell their stories, stories of survival, dignity, and also of an admirable resilience. Sensitivity to the human condition thus characterizes my work. More than presenting a mere photographic work with aesthetic beauty, my great objective as a photographer and a person is to transmit emotions, feelings, and to call attention to the inequalities and the strong asymmetries that still exist in today's world.
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