Works Of Art (5)

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Margarida Neto, "Coreografia", 2002 (8x10")

Mário Cesariny, "Penélope Corre ao Encontro de Ulisses", 1974-85 (8x10")

Mário Cesariny, Relógio, Lima de Freitas..., (9x12)

Paul Gauguin, "Nature Morte aux Pommes", (6x6)

Roberto Chichorro, 1994 (4x5")

Roberto Chichorro, 1996 (13x18)

Rogério Chora, "Embarcações no Rio Sado", 1994 (9x12)

Roland Topor, 1989 (6x7)

I would like to share with you once again a small selection of paintings that I had the chance of photographing through the years, on different occasions and using different cameras: Gandolfi 8x10 (sometimes with 5x7" reducing back), Sinar F2, Hasselblad 500 C/M and, for the last image, Mamiya RZ67.
Lighting as usual by Hensel Flash, Würzburg, Germany.

In this kind of post, I don't find it very polite on my part to say that I prefer this or that artist; I am sure that you agree...

Anyway, I think that nobody will dare to criticize me, if I admit that I found a very deep emotion photographing the painting by Paul Gauguin.
Somebody was not only lucky enough to own such a valuable work of art, but also made good use of it: that person had it hanging in the bedroom wall, right in front of the bed.

Imagine laying in your mattress with such a view...

(Please, don't bother to ask where, because I forgot it long ago!).

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Works of Art (4)

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By alphabetical order:

Guilherme Camarinha (Vitral, 1964) - Domus Iustitiae, Amarante (9x12)

Jaime Martins Barata (Tapestry, 1962) - Domus Iustitiae, Funchal (9x12)

João Vaz de Carvalho (4x5 inches)

João Vaz de Carvalho (4x5 inches)

Júlio Resende (Vitral, 1972) - Domus Iustitiae, Vagos (9x12)

Karel Apel, 1973 (6x6)

Manuel Cargaleiro, 1976 (8x10 inches)

Marc Chagall, "Vase Bleu" (9x12)

The reproduction in 6x6 was made using a Hasselblad camera, the various 9x12 / 4x5" images were made with a Sinar F2, and the 8x10 inches was shot with a Gandolfi Precision.

The lenses I use on my large format cameras are in general made by Schneider and Rodenstock.

Illumination was made, as usual with me, using Hensel Studiotechnik equipment.

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Works of Art (3) - Helena San Payo

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I always enjoy the work of some Fashion or Beauty photographers.

Names like Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier, Irving Penn or Jeanloup Sieff quickly come to my mind when I think about the topic.

They all have produced very interesting images of extreme beauty, where the female body is depicted in all it's splendor. Really a great fountain of inspiration!

On the other way, looking at some photographs on the pages of actual fashion magazines and publicity, one sadly get's the idea that all women (and men too) are getting kind of artificial beings, without soul or skin flaws.

Everyone is highly polished, almost no one looks real!

We are loosing the sense of true beauty. It is all getting so boring!

Happily, and contrary to this ugly tendency, it is a blessing to look at the photographs of great artists like Flor Garduño, a person wich images I greatly admire.

Her book "The Inner Light" show us pages and pages of meaningful sacred images full of mystery and charm. The women Garduño photographs, become soulful goddesses of a timeless era.

Searching through my archive the other day, I came across these reproductions I made 1n 1992 of some paintings by Helena San Payo.

I find them very beatiful and also possessing that kind of mystery I talked about before.

So I thought that I would show them to you as part of my job on photographing works of art.

In a certain kind of way, I perceive these paintings as more realistic images than most post processed photographs of women I can find nowadays.

They remind me of some Nude Photography that seems to slowly get lost in a quickly vanishing time.

They make me want to take a look at some of Edward Weston nudes.

Sometimes I wish I could travell back in time...

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And for today, some more works of Art...

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Still by alphabetical order:

Bela Silva - "Adonis Peludo"

Charters de Almeida

Charters de Almeida

Fernando Pereira

Fernando Pereira

Francisco Goya y Lucientes

Franz Marc - "Zwei Pferde auf der Weide", 1913

Guilherme Camarinha (Tapestry, 1967) - Domus Iustitiae, Águeda

I apologize, but sometimes in the long run, I forget, or loose, the details and information about the works...


As on the post before, I used several cameras, from 6x6 to 5x7inches/13x18cm. I prefer to use Kodak color transparency film for reproductions, because I find it's color rendition more neutral. I avoid the use of "vivid" emulsions. The old EPR 64, and specially EPN 100, are my favourit versions of Ektachrome for such a task. New or newer is not always better...

Maybe one day I will feel like talking about some lightning technics I use...

Some paintings I've been photographing over the years.

By alphabetical order:

Adolf Hoelzel - "Sophie", ca. 1925.

Alexej Jawlensky - "Dunkle Augen", 1912

Almada Negreiros, 1928 (other details unknown to me)

António Inverno (date and title unknown to me)

Arpad Szenes, 1966 (details unknown)

Arpad Szenes (details unknown - Vieira da Silva painting Arpad painting...)

Beatrice Bulteau (details unknown to me)

Bela Silva - "A Terra dos Beijos" (date unknown to me).

When I was a kid, I used to dream about becoming a painter. Pens, pencils, brushes, pastel colors, and all those beatiful things that fill up some shops, always atractted and fascinated me. My father talked me out, with the argument that I would become one more breadless artist... In those times, parents still had the power of doing such things... So I thought about becoming an architect. As life so often turns out to be, I am none of it. Instead I can say that I am a kind of breadless photographer...

Oddly enough, I started my professional photography career at the History of Art Institut (Kunsthistorishes Institut) of the University of Heidelberg, in Germany.
When I decided to come back to Portugal, I managed to keep on photographing works of Art, and I also specialized, as you allready could see on the other posts, in Architectural Photography. Life is funny sometimes, and it surely has it's own ways...

So I will also post, from time to time, some of the paintings that I did photograph. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did. It is always a thrill to have a good painting in front of my camera!

My respect, admiration and gratitude for such great artists. They make the world a better place to live in.


The images were made with different cameras: Hasselblad 6x6, Sinar 9x12 and Gandolfi Precision 8x10" with a reducing 5x7" back.