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Photographer Raphael Martins
Portuguese team
Portrait
Please, tell us about yourself, your hobbies and your other passions.
I have several hobbies, sports,
music, design, Visual Arts and photography, although this last one is what occupies me the most. And I mean photography because in addition to commercial photography, which I do as professional photographer, I also have
personal projects where I seek to explore the limits of this art.
How does your story and life experiences affect your photography?
What are your most important experiences that influenced your art?
It is safe to say that my entire life experience affects how I photograph.
As Ansel Adams said: “You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” This is one of those phrases that makes the most sense for me because often, when I'm doing a photo, I feel influenced by this or that author, this or that song, this or that film. But I can also feel influenced by something I saw in a magazine, even if it has nothing to do with photography, or even by the more recent exhibition I've seen, and going to exhibitions is probably one of the things that most inspire me to create.
What attracted you to photography?
I've always liked to paint, but painting was always a very aggressive act, physically and psychologically very demanding. I could spend a whole week locked in a room just painting, only with the company of music, to see the work completed as fast as I could. When I started shooting I realized that photography would give me the same kind of artistic freedom with much faster results, and it also had the element of surprise because we never fully control the resulting image.
Why are you so attracted by the portrait and creative photography?
What attracts me to portrait photography is the challenge and the difficulty it represents. I like people, I like to analyze people, to observe the traces of each face. To grasp the essence of someone is for me one of the most difficult tasks, and I'm never fully satisfied, it seems that we always escape a nuance, that we always leave something to be said.
What is most important to you, the story behind your images or technical perfection?
To me one is not more important than the other, but It's when the two go hand in hand that emerge the best results.
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