artist statement

I am a 36-year-old visual artist and photographer from São Paulo, Brazil. My journey as an artist is deeply intertwined with the streets of São Paulo, the city that shaped my life and artistic vision. Growing up in a home where silence was expected and noise was punished, I found my freedom on the streets, where I discovered skateboarding.

Skateboarding saved me – it became my refuge from a life that could have easily been consumed by the darker sides of the city. It was my first love. Skateboarding led me to discover the beauty in the chaos of São Paulo: the tall, concrete buildings, the bustling streets, and the lives of the people moving through them. Inspired by the skate videos my friends and I made, I picked up a camera and began capturing those moments. My photography. became a way for me to express the raw and immersive energy of the city – its rough charm and the hidden stories within its streets.

My work is rooted in this urban landscape, focusing on the connection between the built environment and the human interactions within it. At the age of 30, I left Brazil for the first time, seeking to broaden my horizons and take my art beyond borders. My destination was Barcelona, a city whose skate and art scene had always been legendary to me. But life had other plans. I arrived in Portugal, where I faced struggles during the pandemic, working long hours to survive and watching my creative energy slowly fade away. Although I built a life here, with family, the weight of financial survival has overshadowed my passion for photography.

Now, after five years, I am returning to Brazil with new eyes: the eyes of an immigrant, a father, and a man transformed by life in Europe. My work has always been about seeing the world with a renewed perspective, and this return offers me a unique opportunity to capture my homeland through a transformed lens. I want to document the beauty, tension, and evolution of my country, as someone who left and now returns, able to see both the familiar and the strange with new clarity.