Art and Eroticism, by Ricardo Reis
“Eroticism is only one of the many slopes that are part of the huge panoply of ways and contexts of expressing yourself artistically, meaning, eroticism is part of life, and art is only its reflection and vice versa.
Personally, I use the artistic nude as a way of expressing emotions, thoughts, digressions and any kind of introspections. I try to make an image that propitiates a debate, that can be internal or exteriorized, a discussion of motives or reasons that can or not exist, of making a certain image in a certain way.
Firstly I prepare a context, an idea that is never really defined or finished, that may and should be altered at the moment of the execution by the internal influence, or externally by the photographed person or the set.
I have as main intention to review myself, even if it is for the mere fact that I present an image in a very personal way, according to my way to see the world and reality, almost always in a surreal way.
My reality is essentially a mixture of what everybody sees and the world of dreams and illusions that I create. I like to mix textures and use the photographed person as the intrinsic element of the set, or the opposite, to use it as an external element almost intrusive.
I work a lot about extremes. The images can be very clean or extremely complex to understand.
Regarding techniques, I like to make multiple exposures in negative black and white or long exposures, on which the photographed person appears many times on the same image. My goal is to reinforce the idea of mixture of the real world with my imaginary. My images are created by whole at the moment of execution, not in post-production. It is much more challenging and difficult to create like this, just like life itself.
I like and I intent to create and provoke strong emotions on those that see my photographs, like admiration or repulse. The important thing is to feel something, to be a starting point for something more, to let the spectator finish the image that I create.”
About the Author:
A perfect chaos and an eternal conundrum. That is how Ricardo Reis describes the world! Seven years ago he found a way to finally fit in. Photography became his own extension ever since. After improving his knowledge of theory and techniques at IPF (Instituto Português de Fotografia), Ricardo started to work for a well-known portuguese journal. The desire of expanding his line of work led him to photograph concerts, fashion shows and to participate in short feature films and music videos as a cinematographer. Some of his images have already been exhibited in and out of Portugal.
At 32, Ricardo Reis is still longing to capture devastating war zone images and to pursue a solid career in cinema.
Check Ricardo’s portfolio on shair.
RR Wild in Nature 33
