Nascer (to be born) 2022

Back in the summer of 2022 I sent another collection of photos to a photo contest: Nascer 2022.

Fig1. The photos and the form before being sent by mail

This was the text that I submitted along with the photos:

In this work, with the theme “NASCER” (to born), I am trying to look in nature for images that show both expected and unexpected events. The self-imposed limitations for this challenge were: (1) take only photos near my area of residence, and (2) photos most not integrate people. If we consider what we know today about the beginning of life on the planet, the first idea that comes to mind is that water is essential for life to thrive. We can observe this in various places and occasions over the course of a year. Probably the most remembered time of the year is the birth of plants during spring—no one forgets to pass through the Alentejo and see the green hills—and this is because plants take advantage of the rising sun and began to born from the ground. However, in other places such as rivers and ponds, there are other plants that also take advantage of that same time to be born and grow. And sometimes only a few can resist and win the fight for life, thus getting lonely (photo-01) in the middle of nowhere; perhaps not knowing where they are. While others drift, taking (photo-02) advantage of places that become small niches, almost as if they were small maternity hospitals for the birth of a new generation. On dry land, desolated by fire in the midst of the ashes and burned leaves, new trees are reborn, new forests. In Portugal, the cork tree (photo-03) as special meaning for being a protected tree. The birth of new leaves of a gold ion is like a metaphor for the resilience of the national forest, which even after burning is able to be reborn, giving the hope that forests can return to their splendor. However, in other cases it takes help from humans for this rebirth. This aid stems from the increase in knowledge that was generated by science and which in other times was oppressed by those who argued (metaphorically, photo-04) that eating apples would be harmful. Finally, nature shows us that being born may not be a binary event. Being born, can also be seen as an event of gradual transformation, where in each step it is difficult to realize that it is the same individual. In other words, there are transformations that make an individual come out of his own shell (photo-05).

The photos (possibly cropped to display):

In this contest the photo number one (photo-01) was select for exibition. This exibition will be on display during the month of January 2023 at “Galeria da Região Sul da Ordem dos Médicos, Lisbon”. This was quite unexpected for me—but good news. This photo was taken in a rush, and the original photo is some what flat. But I guess that the playing arround in photo editing ended up quite nicely.

This was the original photo:

Fig2. The original photo that was selected, without editing.

And this is me next to the photo at the exposition:

Fig3. Me pointing at my first photography at an exibition 🎉

🎁 Get free copies of these photos in high resolution here; suppport me to have access for the exhibited photo.