We have the pleasure to have Joao Carlos, a renowned photographer, judge one of the photo contest on ViewBug. Joao is an accomplished advertising, documentary, fashion and portrait photographer.
We asked Joao some questions, you cannot miss his answers:
1) When did you start taking photos?
I have always been passionate about The Arts and my first artistic endeavour was the constant painting of this hallway in my parents home; it was a massive canvas to me. I must have drawn, scribbled and painted it two or three times and every time my father and mother would scold me and paint over my “ART” and then I would repeat the deed. The first Christmas present I ever asked for at the age of five was a camera. My darling mom gave me this box-like toy camera and I kindly said thank you and gave it back to her, stating it didn’t have a flash and I wanted a real one!
My dream in grade school was to be a automobile designer, then in Junior High I wanted to be a comic book illustrator and in High school I played the guitar (I was, and am still, terrible!) so my dream was to be a rockstar. Then collage came around and I wanted to be a painter: a ‘real’ Artist. Then my idea was to live a bohemian life, but I am far too practical for that. Halfway through my second year (after already having some solo and group shows) I was going to have my first big solo show at a local Municipal Museum and I needed to have my paintings photographed and a buddy of mine, a local family photographer, was going to charge me a small fortune to do it. I was 19 and broke. So I did the only thing I could do, I sold my guitar (my Fender Stratocastor) and purchased my first camera. That is how it all got started; I immediately fell in love with the art form. I switched my major from Fine Arts with a minor in Art History to Photography.
2) What inspires you when taking photos?
I take inspiration from all types of sources, there are so many artists that inspire me, but sometimes it may just be a single image. If I have to name some I guess this would be the list: Meisel, Klein, Roversi , Solve Sundsbo, Mario Testino, Lebowitz, Weber, Ritts, Demarchelier, Avedon, Newton, Adams, Sabastiao Salgado and it goes on and on. My biggest influences are from cinema such as Kubrick, Godard, David Lynch, Hitchcock, Roger Deakin, Janusz Kaminski, Christopher Doyle and the great painting Masters such as Caravaggio, Sorrola, Gustave Courbet or Vermer just to name a few…but the list is almost endless.
3) What is your favorite subject to photograph and why?
I Love almost every moment of my Job. The creation element involved is calming , its my coffee . sure it can get stressful at times but when I have a camera in my hand everything looks and feels different. If you look at my work it quite broad range of subject Variety.
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