José Pedro Cardeiro is a photographer from Lisbon, Portugal that managed to catch my attention with his beautiful, expressive images, where each photograph tells a very detailed story, a moment, a feeling. Photography that is enchanting. I had the pleasure to ask him about what photography means to him, what the perfect picture is to him and what his inspiration is…

Your images show that you have a great eye for details and beautiful moments! What does photography mean to you?
Thank very much for the compliments! For me photography is a way of expressing emotions and feelings, the capture of a moment, which, at first sight, looks ephemeral but, by freezing it in time and space, becomes eternal. I see it like a constant exercise of holding time (for example just like the beautiful slow motions in Tom Ford’s film “A Single Man”), like capturing those precious moments of our lives that sometimes we tend to miss. I only realised the importance that photography had to me when I lost my analog cameras in Paris. I felt really sad. It was really strange because I felt that I had almost lost someone really close. And then I realised how much photography was part of my life, like an extension of my soul, a way of expressing myself and document and capture the beautiful moments that I had the opportunity to see and live.

Are you always walking around “armed” with your camera, seeing great motives everywhere?
Sometimes I take my camera wherever I go, and sometimes I stay away from cameras for months. There are times when I take my camera with the purpose to document a walk in a special place and others where I just take it to capture little and beautiful details of the routine. For me, it is a question of phases where you have the drive or not to take pictures. I feel that inspiration is the most important thing. There are times when you don’t have inspiration, and I have came to the conclusion that it’s no good to force yourself doing a thing that doesn’t feels natural to you at that time.

What is the perfect picture for you?
The picture where I can see things that are not there, and that you can only see by looking closely with time and care, like the feeling that was felt at that moment, the connection between people, the mood, the personality of strangers… Some months ago, I had the opportunity to get to know a lovely young Portuguese family that live in Amsterdam and that I follow for some years. I only knew them by their design work, their photos on flickr and the e-mails we sent. And it is incredible to see that all the things I imagined only by looking at their photos (the voices, the personality, the posture, the tenderness, the serenity…) were real and matched precisely with my perceptions. For me photographs are perfect when they have this power.

What or who inspires you?
The things that inspire me the most are: true love, music, cinema, feelings and emotions, beautiful people, pure hearts, true smiles and ways of dressing.

Are you self-taught or do you have any photography related education?
I am self-taught. I began taking photos more seriously back in 2004, when my father bought a digital camera with some manual control over speed and aperture. At that time I used the camera every time I could and began experimenting things all by myself and at the same time I searched on the internet for the information I needed, and talked about photography with my brother and my father who had some notions of it. In that year I felt the need to explore the analog process, as it was the way that made more sense to me when capturing things (it helps you plan more carefully what to capture, the composition, the light…). And so I bought a simple camera which at that time it was the best I could afford – a lomo colorsplash. As it was a really simple camera with only two modes (an instant mode and a bulb mode) it helped me to meter light by the eye. In September 2007 my grandmother offered me a SLR camera, a Nikon FE. I guess that was the moment when I began to dedicate more time and care to photography, as with that camera I could have more control over speed, aperture and light.

Do you think it is important which camera to use – or with talent one can do great images no matter what equipment?
I think it is a compromise between the two. In my opinion if you aren’t open to what photography embraces, even if you have the best camera available, you will not be able to take a decent image. On the other hand, if you have the passion, the sensibility and the eye to look around you carefully you can take beautiful photos even with a hand-made pinhole. Of course equipment take an important role on the process, but I think it just adds some detail and life to the picture, because the idea and the composition are there either way (not counting with taking photos with crappy cameras).

You have your own online store where people can buy your images as prints – your store is called Beautiful Sadness- how come?
The name “Beautiful Sadness” came from the name of an official bootleg from a very special Spanish indie band called Onion. I think it suits the feelings of my photos like a glove, as I consider most of my images have a sense of melancholy. There is a very special beauty in sadness and there are few people who can see it. I know few people who allow themselves to feel sad, and consequently be honest with them.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself being even more honest with myself, dedicating my time with people whom I feel identified with and with whom I feel it makes more sense. Afterwards the time you dedicate to a person determines the importance that her/him have to you and the kind of connection you establish. I would like to see myself doing creative things like making music, taking photos and drawing, as well as doing some personal projects like having a store, organizing concerts, creating a clothes brand…

The most important thing in life is…?
Love. I mean true love and not the fake feeling (something buyable, conditional and based in short-term pleasure…) the media and society bomb us everyday. Like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote on his book The Little Prince “One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”, and this is one thing very few people understand. True love allows you to do things you didn’t know that were possible.

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity of sharing my way of feeling photography and love/life.

www.cargocollective.com/jpcardeiro
www.etsy.com/shop/beautifulsadness

Interview by Sigrun Guggenberger

Everything is becoming faster, trends are rapidly disappearing as fast as they appeared and the flow of information and pictures increases more and more. Therefore to see the time as something more relative, perhaps even discovering the beauty of slowness exerts a great fascination. Rodrigo Vila has implemented a photo-series whose idea it was not only to capture a fraction of a moment or a scene. Instead he has worked with a pinhole camera and a succession of many pictures during a tour of Lisbon to represent a different time period. We asked Rodrigo a few questions about his work.

Wir leben in einer Zeit wo alles immer schnelllebiger wird, Trends rasant kommen und genauso flott wieder verschwinden und die Flut an Informationen und Bildern immer mehr zunimmt. Die Zeit als etwas Relatives zu sehen, vielleicht sogar auch die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit übt  daher eine grosse Faszination aus. Rodrigo Vila hat eine Photo-Serie umgesetzt deren Idee es war nicht nur einen Bruchteil eines Momentes oder einer Szene darzustellen. Vielmehr hat er versucht mit einer pinhole Kamera und einer Aneinanderreihung von vielen Bildern während einer Tour durch Lissabon eine andere Zeitspanne darzustellen. Wir haben Rodrigo zum “6 questions” Interview gebeten.

What’s the most fascinating thing about photography for you?
The ability to capture a very personal way to see the world.

Who or what inspires you?
The city with all the people, history and fragmented pieces of different times that in the end became the city itself.

Tell us the story behind the “Invented Lisbon” serie:
The fragmented images speak of the impossibility to apprehend the city in its totality and with an only center.
The city became different cities where we can find our very own city.
All the images portray not a stopped moment in time but a small trace of my own city inside Lisbon and also portray the absent expressions of the habitants of a after-modern city.

Which camera do you use?
In this case I used a pinhole camera.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself with my bag fulfilled with even more images and feelings that make my world even bigger.

The most important thing in life?
Living it.

rodrigovila.rvdesign.com.pt