About the Artist

Paulo Monteiro

For Paulo Monteiro, the beauty of flowers is of great importance, not only from an aesthetic point of view. Many flowers have evolved to become attractive to pollinating animals, such as bees, wasps and bats. Flowers are paradise on earth. Monteiro finds that photography is not a reproduction of reality; it is a form of representation of the photographer's imagination, knowing that imagination is the capacity to create images in the mind. Thus, by abstracting from reality, the photographer can create monochrome photos, using black and white as an abstraction. Black and white is the purest form of photography.

Biography

Paulo Monteiro was born in São Miguel Island, Azores, where he lives and works. As a self-taught photographer, he has developed long-term projects about various subjects, such as popular religiosity, profane festivities, architecture, landscape, nature, and the world of labour. His work has been displayed and published in Portugal and abroad. His book Açores Profundos|Profound Azores reveals the rituals and the soul of the Azores. His sources of inspiration are the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Eugene Smith, Sebastião Salgado and Cristina García Rodero, among others. Although he focuses on documentary photography, he also develops experimental photography projects.