Exhibition “Periscope: photographing the sea from the waves” by José Diniz
In Flach Gallery, Villavicencio 301-A, Barrio Lastarria. Metro Catholic University.
From August 15th to September 29th. Tuesday to Friday from 12:30 to 20:30 hours, and Saturday and Sunday from 15:00 to 21:00 hours.
Free entry.
Photographer José Diniz (1954) presents a series of images he made swimming along the Brazilian and Uruguayan coast. 52 black-and-white works that are the record of someone emerging from the water like a submarine, silently observes between the current and photographs what he finds offshore. Periscope is exhibited during the month of photography at Galería Flach, from August 15 to September 29, as part of the Latin American photography circulation project funded by Fondart.
While this Brazilian photographer says he always lived “with one foot in the water”, it was only when he was in his 50s that he began to explore with images captured from the sea, taken in different places in Brazil and Uruguay. He entered from the shore of the beach with a box in his hands – inside which he had a similar camera – and slinked against the current until he strayed from the waves that broke on the shore. Once there I waited for hours for the right time to shoot, as in the middle of the Atlantic I could not change rolls, lenses or cameras.
“In the water you have no control of the photographic equipment and you are experimenting with all the senses. So the camera is part of that, both in physical and psychological aspects, and I prepare for all kinds of sea: I have a team that weighs almost four kilos, which is for a quiet beach, and I have a digital camera that I carry in a plastic bag , which is for when there are stronger waves,” Diniz says of the project he developed between 2007 and 2014.
Swimmers, cruisers, smaller boats, helicopters and airplanes are some of the characters and elements that are observed in the Periscope series, works in black and white (similar and digital) that were edited in a photobook (Editorial Madalena) and that are present to the public following the aesthetics of that publication.
“Let’s assemble the 52 images of the series as a book stuck on the gallery wall. Because a book can’t just be left on bookstore shelves, so this is an opportunity for people to get to know a photobook from another perspective,” he overtakes the exhibition.
Periscope, is exhibited in Galería Flach (Villavicencio 301- A, Barrio Lastarria), from August 15 to September 29. Tuesday to Friday from 12:30 to 20:30 hours, and Saturday and Sunday from 15:00 to 21:00 hours. Free entry.
Opening: August 14, 19:30 hours, free admission.
Chat with José Diniz: August 16, 19:30 hours, free admission and no prior registration (cups on a first-come, first-served basis).
José Diniz. He was born in Niteroi, Brazil, in 1954, and currently lives in Rio de Janeiro.
He studied photography at the UCAM (Universidad Candido Mendes) in Rio de Janeiro, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and the School of Visual Arts in Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro.
Author of the books “Literariamente” (2009) and “Periscope” (2014), the latter being nominated as one of the best books of 2014 by the International Center of Photography, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Culture Lens, and others. He has participated in several publications in Brazil and abroad, and has also produced many books by artists found in several collections in Brazil, Argentina, the United States and Europe.
In 2013 his portfolio was highlighted by the British Journal of Photography as “Ones to watch – The talent issue”. In 2012 he won the award of Marc Ferrez de Fotografía – FUNARTE (National Art Foundation, Ministry of Culture of Brazil) with the MARESIA project, which he exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro in 2013. In 2011 he participated in the exhibition International Discoveries III, a biennache selection of 12 photographers worldwide by the curators of FOTOFEST – USA.
