I was born in 1959 in Sao Paulo. I graduated in Physics at the University Sao Paulo, where I met Thais, my wife. She is physicist too. We both worked as teachers for some years. We never stayed long time doing the same. We have three kids Felipe, Paula and Andre. They have less than 3 years difference from Felipe the first to Andre the last. So we were already a big family when Thais and myself were 25. We lived 2 years in Chicago (96 and 97) when Thais was in a post doc in a big laboratory over there. From 2001 to 2004 we lived in Paris because the company I work for sent me there. Then I moved back to Sao Paulo and in 2007 to Hamburg Germany where I am today. Paula stayed in Paris to finish her studies in history. Felipe lives by his own and works in a bank in Sao Paulo. Andre studies economy in Sao Paulo University and works with insurance. Thais was teaching physics in the last two years and now works in a bank using her background in mathematics. I have been an executive for quite a while now.
With photography I had a cousin that explained me the basic principle of lens aperture and shutter speed to control the amount of light reaching the film when he bought a Yashica reflex. I was ten years old (I guess) and I was fascinated. I wanted to be a painter at that time. At 22 I bought an Olympus OM1n and had a neighbor, that taught photography, to show me the basics in darkroom work. I actually worked for a while as a photographer with this Olympus and a Mamyia C330 bought later on. Nothing special to say about this pro experience. I just had a camera and made some money with it doing a bit of everything. It helped for our living and also to enlarge my camera gear. I felt at ease with composition but differences between eye and film sensitiveness is something I had never really studied.

Today I have a B&W lab that although small is a dream compared to the one I had before. It is in Sao Paulo. It makes a big difference because a good enlarger with a good lens gives you more control on the final result. It also pays to have more discipline. I am astonished with the possibilities of digital but I still keep doing only traditional "argentique" photography. The furthest I go is to have my colour negatives scanned and I adjust contrast and color before printing. Things that I could do in normal conditions case I had a color lab. Honestly, I sucumbed also to adjust perspective. So far I did not start assembling, adding, cutting elements in my pictures. I would rather go back painting instead of doing that in a computer.
It is absolutely not a hobby for me. I do it seriously. Fortunately, when you are involved, you chain moments of frustration with happiness without having a definite vision of the whole. Think the next. Just keep doing. I hope I will die before I realize it was a big waste.

If you ask me what would not be a waste. For me it is simply to believe somebody cares about them, I mean the pictures. That they won't end up in a garbage bin as soon as I am not there. Being a good deal in a flea market and giving an idea to somebody about the years I lived is somehow a comforting idea to me.
Feb 2007