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The moment I took my first photo
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I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
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I think the main worry we must have when we photograph
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is to obtain the best images possible
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in the right moment, in the moment of the click.
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Taking pictures of strangers on the street in a way that it's obvious
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is a nerve-wrecking, scary job.
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Portugal is really different from where I have been to around the world
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and everything here inspires me.
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My photos change from "this my lifestyle"
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to travelling and seeing the world through my eyes.
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Being able to travel opened up many doors.
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I see many things, and it has changed my perspective of the world.
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So I wanted to share that with my friends and family
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because there are a lot of people that have never seen stuff like this.
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My philosophy of photographing is to just capture what you like.
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At the end of the day all the photos are for you.
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If you just try to impress people you lose sight of photography.
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You should only take photos for yourself because that's what you like to do.
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This impresses people.
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Always think back to why you have started photography,
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why you appreciate it
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and be yourself instead of someone else.
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It pushes me to continue doing things like this.
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Not just for people to travel but also to inspire people to do what they love.
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Part of the experience is that in my head
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there is this running monologue of justifying myself.
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So I spend the whole day rationalizing,
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explaining myself to myself.
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Especially because I'm doing something
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that, a lot of the time, makes people temporarily uncomfortable
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which is not my nature.
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In a conscious way there are a lot of questions like
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how do I walk through the world as a gigantic, hairy two-year-old.
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I think this is why my instinct is to put the camera low
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because the world is unbelievable from waist height.
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So the excitement isn't about a wild photo.
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The excitement is an addiction.
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When it works right it feels like you have superpowers,
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that you could distil this crazy unexpected thing
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from the whole mess of the world.
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There is this very instinctual attraction to photography
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because our existence,
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no matter how full it gets,
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is lonely, and short, and meaningless.
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Being able to present your experience
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as something concrete,
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is like 'this is my story as I saw it, this is my life as I tell it.'
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Witness me, validate my existence,
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let me be more than this fleck of dust in the air.
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I photograph because I love people.
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It's the only way I photograph.
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If the people didn't exist in the streets
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neither would my photographs.
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I think it is very important to like people,
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to understand, to respect, to listen to people,
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and to establish a kind of chemical relationship
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between the photographer and the subject of the photography.
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In my case it's people.
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That's the reason I want to give the photos I made
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to the people in the streets.
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Sometimes, I come back later,
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and always give the photos to the people I photographed in the streets.
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I think this is very human and good
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because they feel important, and they are.
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You transmit what you know, and what you've learned with the others.
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You only transmit when you take a photograph
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and show it.
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What you are showing is a bit of yourself.
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This is our way to transmit our feelings.
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Not only the feelings of the subject that is photographed
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but also the feelings of the photographer.
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However, the discipline that you have to have with film
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is lost with digital photography.
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I was shooting all the different kinds of cameras.
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It was pretty much: point, shoot, burst... Whatever.
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It became really boring,
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and my interest in photography started to die
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until I switched over to Leica.
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Everything felt genuine with Leica.
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In a moment where technology is all about adding features
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I think that uncomplicating a beautiful camera
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does the photographer the great favor
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of letting them not think about it.
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When I'm shooting with this camera
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I always look at the back on the screen
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if there's going to be a picture there.
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But there's no screen.
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All you have is a little knob where you scroll for your ISO.
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It's a visceral thrill when you're taking these photos.
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Because just like film,
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you don't know what you've got until later on.
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With this camera we came back to the discipline of film.
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It's kind of the perfect tool for this little dream bubble
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of a long weekend.
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We are an unlikely trio.
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We cover a very wide range of perspective and personality.
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It has been a brilliant chemical reaction: mixing us together.
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They are so different photographers.
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And I'm so glad because I know
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they did a great job here in Porto.
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I'm a little proud of that.
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I learned a lot being around these two.
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They're fun, they're funny.
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I'm happy to be able to meet them.
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I think the philosophy is to live life
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with your eyes as wide open as you can get them.