Photojournalism: Honorable Mention 2024 (amateur)
ENTRY DESCRIPTION
On a deserted beach, a group of believers gather to perform the Cult of Liberation, to be freed from the evil spirits that have taken hold of them. The liberation ends with the Purification, when the faithful dive into the sea and the Pastor confirms that they are pure again. Before the immersion, the faithful listen attentively to the pastor's final invocation, in which he invokes God's presence as a witness to their purification.
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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