Title: All Thoughts are prey to some Beast

Author: Fátima Abreu Ferreira

Publisher: Self Publish

Website: https://www.fatimaabreuferreira.com/

Year: 2017

Place of Publication: Portugal

Size: 170 mm x 240 mm

Pages: 44

Copies: 50

Category: Photography

Interview:

TUB - Who or what are your main inspiration?

FAF - I feel that I am profoundly influenced by the aesthetics and theoretical approach of the Provoke era overall post war Japanese photography. Names like Takuma Nakahira and Daido Moriyama have influenced me since I started to photograph. Their assumption that the photographer can capture what cannot be expressed in words and images can provoke language and ideas, resulting in a new language and in new meanings is deeply connected to the way I feel photography.

TUB - How do you define your photographic style?

FAF - My main goal in photography is to cause emotions. I want people to feel something when they look at my pictures. They can (and should) also think about them but, that should come after. First comes the gut, then the brain. And that´s why I feel my photographic style to be kind of intense and dramatic, using a lot of contrast and a blurred, grainy aesthetic.

TUB - Can you explain a bit the concept behind this publication? (All Thoughts are prey to some Beast)

FAF - This project first started when I returned to my hometown past year, after living for 3y in Lisbon. My life was quite chaotic and unsure at that time since I was leaving a steady job and not having the slightest clue on what to do about my future. It was summer and I was hoping to return to those safe child memories of playing all day in street and feeling secure next to my family but, that didn´t happen. My small town was completely changed and being summer there were a lot of people on the streets, a lot of traffic, a lot of noise everywhere. It was unrecognizable. Also, the north of the country was being fustigated by wild fires and all the surrounding forests around my town were burning. The air was thick, the sky had a grey tone I´d never seen before and you could feel your eyes and throat burning from all the smoke. It was quite scary so, my escape was to go out at night and loose myself in the woods, away from all the noise and confusion.

That´s when this project was born. It became a work of silence, darkness and fears. Those things that creep in the back of our minds in times of uncertainty

TUB - How do you feel this particular project inside of your photographic universe?

FAF - I think this was the first project where I felt I was being truly honest with myself. I was not trying to achieve a certain style or reproduce one determined approach. I was just out there photographing as a way of coping with what was happening in my life and that simple fact made all my tectonic plates shift into place and really feel that I was startint to walk my own path in photography.

TUB - What kind of camera do you use?

FAF - SONY RX100 and a Fujifilm x100T

TUB - Where are you based? And how does this define your work?

FAF - I am base in a small town on the north of Portugal (Esposende) and I really think it has influenced tremendously my work. I am passionate by the rural aspect of it. The sense of being so connected with the earth and nature itself has also helped me to develop the connection with my own emotions which is what I always try to convey even when I am doing documentary work.