Artist Profile | Photography

Ricardo Takamura

Authorial photographer based in São José dos Campos – SP, manifests in his photographs of night landscapes almost surreal realities, which are hidden from our eyes. He had a relationship with art from an early age, at a young age he began painting and sculpting in wood, passionate about light, he dedicated himself for a while to creating sculptures with light and lamps. When he started to dedicate himself to photography, he brought all the inspiration and knowledge he acquired in art. His work is closely related to cinematography, seeking to freeze moments as if they were a single frame of a film frozen in time, transmitting sensitivity and emotion. He is currently dedicating himself to the difficult task of bringing contemporary photography closer to his work on night and nature photography, creating series that connect with staged photography, and refer to science fiction film scenarios. BIOGRAPHY Ricardo Takamura is a Brazil-based conceptual photographer, manifest in his night & landscape photography surreal realities that are hidden from our eyes.He relates to the art as long as he was young, painting and sculpting in wood. In love with light, he dedicated for a long time to create sculptures with light and lamps. When he began to devote himself to photography, he brought all the inspiration and knowledge acquired in the art. His work is closely related to cinematographic photography, seeking to freeze moments as if they were a single frame of a film stopped in time, conveying sensitivity and emotion. Currently he has been dedicating himself to the difficult task of bringing contemporary photography together with his work of night and nature photography, creating series that connect with staged photography, and refer to scenarios of sci fi films. ARTIST STATEMENT My relationship with my photography goes back to my childhood. I grew up on a farm in a transition area between the city and the countryside, close to the city, and at the same time far from everything. As a child I fell in love with cinema, films and science fiction stories, and this experience in a partially rural area and the passion for science fiction stories awakened my interest in the unknown. I often ventured into the small woods around my house at night. The mystery of the night enchanted me and at the same time it awoke a fear of the unknown, what did the night hide? At the same time, I was enchanted by a sky that was still full of stars around my house. Over time, the city grew and the lights took over the sky, and the stars disappeared. I grew up with a Kodak Instamax and a Polaroid that was always out of film, the prices were prohibitive at the time. Over time, I started taking care of a family camera, but photography, which always sparked a passion in me, ended up being put aside and I dedicated myself to other arts. For some time I turned to painting with acrylics and soon I became interested in wood sculptures. The light that was always present in my life, as a child I had thousands of lanterns with me all the time, turned into a passion for modeling light, and I started designing lamps carved in wood and iron. For a long time I dedicated myself to painting and sculpture, with no intention of transforming art into a way of life, and I ended up leaving photography aside. It was only with the arrival of the first digital cameras that I began to become interested in photography again. photography. Free from the exorbitant costs of photographic films, I began to experiment with new processes; digital cameras now allowed me to see a light that was beyond my eyes. And it enchanted me that this light, so faint and soft, could be shaped and through it I could show an imaginary world that was mine alone. And so photography came together with my old passion for cinema and science fiction stories, and I became increasingly interested in telling stories within my photographs. At the same time, almost always the stories I was telling were about nothing, almost as if they were portraying a poetic void, a pause or a breath between one action and another in a film. This pause has a name in Eastern culture, “Ma”, which means pause (or interval) in Japanese, and talks about the importance of emptiness. Today, much of my work talks about this void, a moment of peace in an imaginary world, moving between staged and cinematographic photography. ARTIST’S DECLARATION My relationship with my photography reminds me of my childhood. I grew up on a farm in a transition area between the city and the countryside, close to the city, and at the same time far from everything. As a child I fell in love with cinema, films and science fiction stories, and this experience in a partially rural area and the passion for science fiction stories sparked me an interest into the unknown. I often ventured into the small woods around my house at night.