João Pedro Marnoto October 17, 2008

João Pedro Marnoto (b.1975, Portugal) enrolled in his first photography class at the age of 14. He later left halfway during a degree in graphic design in Portugal and went to the UK  to train as a photographer. As time progressed he turned increasingly to documentary work, with his first book called “The Rocks, The People And The Memory”  released in 2007. João teaches photography and recently received a grant from the Portuguese Center of Photography to develop a project and exhibited around Portugal. He is finishing his first video documentary and  a new book. His work was shown at the Lumix festival for young photographers in 2008 and he is currently working with the NGO: Doctors of the World.

About the Photograph:

“My working process consists mainly in wandering around and trying to make contact with the environment and it’s people. On a cold, cloudy but relaxing winter afternoon I entered this local cafe at Vila Verde in Alijó, a region situated in Northeast Portugal. The photo is part of a project entitled “Nine Months of Winter and Three of Hell”, a popular expression from the Douro and Trás-os-Montes region in Northeast Portugal. The work is about the people that live beyond the slopes of the Douro River, ingrained in the land that sustains their  hunger and the faith that points towards the skies.  One of Western Europe’s poorest regions and last frontiers of rural life this region produces the beloved Port Wine. This project also represents a human relation with nature and faith vanishing and confronted by  new social, economic and political realities. It is a visual representation of the opposite end of the chain of evolution and progress that brings with it the disappearance of past values.