JaamZIN Creative
Exhibition
The photography of
Miguel Melleiro Junior
10th of November - 15th of December 2019
Click on the picture to see the exhibited artworks in magazine format
My interest in photography began in the mid-1990s, when I started shooting with 35mm film and bought my first SLR camera.
Self-taught, I began to study and practice photography through books, articles and printed publications, available in bookstores and newsstands in the 90s in Brazil.
I did my first professional 35mm slide job in 2000 and received my first payment for a series of institutional photographs.
I was one of the first photographers to work professionally with digital photography in Brazil in the early 2000s, started with a 5 megapixel digital camera and used Adobe Photoshop version 5.5 to edit my photos.
From 2000 to 2010, I worked as a product photographer and also as a graphic designer producing product photos and catalogs for various companies in Brazil.
In 2010, my mother was diagnosed with Alzhaimer disease, so I made the decision to stop my professional career in photography.
In 2016, I returned to shooting again, but only for my personal projects in Authorial Photography.
Well, since then that's what I've been doing when I have some time and little money left.
I currently have few financial resources, so I take my pictures using basic photographic equipment consisting of a mirrorless camera and a kit lens.
Well, I'm a simple man from the interior of Brazil and I think that's all I have to say, I hope my photos have more to say than my words.
In April 2017 I began photographing in Paranapiacaba, and in just over a year I formed a
portfolio of this small railway village with approximately 1000 inhabitants.
MINIMALISM
My favorite subject in photography, are people on the streets and in public places. The reason for my preference for this subject is that I like to photograph the relationship of people with the environment in which they live.
During these years, is there someone or any photographers who influenced you? How did they influence your thinking, photographing, and career path?
The Brazilian photographer Germam Lorca (São Paulo, May 28, 1922 - 97 years of age).
German Lorca influenced me through his minimalist photos and also his street photos, since I met his work a few years ago, I immediately identified with his works. His modernist and exquisite photography inspired me to do many of my photos.
If you can go anywhere you want, which 3 places would you want to go for photography?
If I could choose 3 places to photograph, these three places are located here in Brazil:
Tiradentes - State of Minas Gerais - Brazil
Ouro Preto - State of Minas Gerais - Brazil
Paraty - State of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
All these places have in common historical centers with architecture of the baroque style of the Brazilian colonial period, Cycle of the Gold - end of century XVII.
ARCHITECTURE AND FACADES
PORTRAITS
Which do you prefer, Black and White or color photography?
Well, that depends on what you want to shoot, it also depends on the subject and the lighting conditions. If color is the predominant factor in the scene, then my choice will be color
photography, if the contrast is strong and well defined in the scene, then my choice will be
black and white photography.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
Paranapiacaba is an amazing place due to its climate, its historical importance, its legends
and mainly for the simplicity and hospitality of its inhabitants. Always when I go to
Paranapiacaba and there is fog formation, I feel in another dimension, it is something really
transcendental for me.
When the fog invades the village of Paranapiacaba, everything changes and you start to see everything through contrasts and silhouettes, when this happens, then it is the right time to
make great photos, preferably in black and white.
