Names like Agnès Varda and Gilles Caron, but also some young talents, can be seen at the ‘Neves Photographic Meetings’ until the end of the year. ‘Euronews’ spoke with the “soul” of the event, Diamantino Quintas.
As Punhe Villagea small town in the municipality from Viana do Castelobecame the setting for what is probably the exhibition of photograph most important and complete Portugal in these moments?
The answer is in Diamantino Quintas: The history of Neves Photographic Encountersexhibited at the Neves Cultural Forum until the end of the year, is above all the story of a young man who left his town for Parisfounded a photographic laboratory that today is a world reference, but he never forgot where he came from.
At the age of 19, before leaving for FranceDiamantino took a photography of the banks of the Neiva Riverwhere he used to bathe with his friends. More than 40 years later, during a conversation, he came up with the idea of offering the photo to his hometown, more specifically to the recently inaugurated Neves Cultural Forum.
From the gift of a single photograph, the idea soon evolved into a exhibition that reviews the main authors with whom Diamantino works as a developer/enlarger. The exhibition brings together more than 100 works by 29 photographerss, from sacred monsters like Gilles Caron y Agnes Varda to emerging names like Karen Paulina Biswell or Michella Bredahl. The lot is made up mostly of French authors or based in Franceand also includes the Portuguese Silvy Crespo and Juliana Maar.
See a selection of exhibited photographs in the following gallery:
Guardian of an almost disappeared art
Diamantino Quintas, has been associated with great names in photography, calling them his own for many years: he was Robert Doisneau who trusted him in his last years to print his photos for exhibitions, a relationship that continued with the family after the photographer’s death in 1994. The family of Gilles Caron, who tragically disappeared at the age of 30 in 1970 while doing a report in Cambodia also works exclusively with him to print photographs. But it is not the names that impress this 63-year-old from Minho: “I don’t care if they are important names or not, What interests me are the human qualities of the person. That’s the aspect I like to cultivate,” he says.
One of the aspects of this exhibition that differentiates it from others is precisely that places in the center not the figure of the photographer, but that of the enlargerusually in the shadow of the artists he works for.
In an almost 100% digital world, Diamantino Labo Photo goes against the current and opts for 100% analogue: here everything starts from the negative and continues with exclusively artisanal and analogue processes. That’s what makes this laboratory sea unique in the world: “There are many artisans making analog photographic prints, on an individual level. But on a professional level, with a team of several people, I am the only one in the world that he does right now,” he says. Diamantino has five people working for him in his laboratory. Paris.
If the art of analog photography was about to disappear, he does not let it die and has even given it a new life: “I don’t see digital as a threat. Maybe if digital had not appeared, my laboratory would no longer exist.“he adds.
Juliana Butstage name of Portuguese photographer Juliana Martins, worked only with digital until she met Diamantino. “I met him through some French photographer friends and I was amazed by his work“she says. Curiosity took over and she began to focus on analog photography, a work that she has been developing in collaboration with the mentor of these meetings.
Here we can see a series of photographs focused on the topic that is the main constant at work the Juliana But: self-portraits and variations on the female body. “My work is very personal, it is a diarist’s work. I try to convey my message through the bodysometimes metaphorically, other times breaking the idea that the naked body is something sexualized,” he explains.
If the lower floor of the forum is dedicated to the work of the 29 photographers, the upper floor is decorated under the friendship sign: next to the photo that Diamantino took of the Neiva River, there are photographs of three friends from the land with whom he grew up and who also fell in love with photography, among them the other great creator of these encounters, Domingos Jaques.
Because the amistad and the share are the main reasons of this event. Asked about the importance of showing what he does to the people he grew up with, Diamantino answers: “More than showing, the important thing for me is to share. That is my purpose.”
