The Voice Within - Ricardo Reis
As the world was changing, Ricardo Reis kept his camera near. Emotionally driven, the shooting was electric. Ricardo, with his international repertoire, had access to travel, other cities, situations, people – feeling various energies. All this, previously taken for granted, came to a halt with the pandemic. In March 2020 the world changed for everyone, including Ricardo in his Portugese home-town. It was as if the earth stopped spinning. After a decade of photography, Ricardo put down the camera.
But the urge to use the camera was too great. Ricardo visited a ghost city – and was overwhelmed by a million memories. Emotions, the sadness felt in empty spaces, an empty square full of silence. He smiled knowingly - the space was his. The shooting started again and continues.
One day, he climbs the Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in Portugal, to find nature again and make peace with empty landscapes. The sensation of freedom sets in the moment he gets on the train. The journey, the train’s motion and the breath-taking scenery let him breathe freely again.
He looks at the mountainous horizon, listens to the waterfalls and feels in the mojo..
Closed windows now represent freedom, he sees magic in cold landscapes and in empty benches in parks; being free again, even if it only lasts for one frame.
For those who create art inspiration comes in a moment; for Ricardo it came from a mixture of dazzling emptiness and the anger about absence.
Ricardo normally searches for places full of everyone and everything and tries to capture the emotion beyond the obvious. In this pandemic world, nothing was more obvious than the emptiness. He turned that to his advantage: images without body shape or movement, but still full of soul.
On one hand needing to believe the world should not be like this, and on the other hand feeling the need to show his vision of 2020, a very intimate, serene and introspective work is created. In black and white and with strong contrasts, as if he knows the world is about to spin again.
Please visit the page of Ricardo Reis to see more of his available work.
