{"id":19238,"date":"2014-07-02T20:13:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T03:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=19238"},"modified":"2014-07-02T20:13:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T03:13:53","slug":"looking-for-the-bigger-picture-interview-with-selvasp-collective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/02\/looking-for-the-bigger-picture-interview-with-selvasp-collective\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for the bigger picture, Interview with SelvaSP Collective"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Photo by Gustavo Minas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Editor’s note: All photos are the respected copyright of the members of SelvaSP)\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Take a look at this interview of \u00c2\u00a0SelvaSP. They are a street photography collective hailing out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We explore how this collective is being run, what it is they look for, and how they approach the art of street photography.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How did SelvaSP first come to life? What were the inspirations and ideas for the group?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea behind \u00e2\u20ac\u0153SelvaSP\u00e2\u20ac\u009d came from Drago. At first, he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have a clue about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but he was looking for a way to cover and document the human conditions in his hometown, S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo, by using a camera. He talked to his Childhood friend, Rafael Mattar, and the idea of forming a group, who would pursue \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by actually practicing it on the streets, inspired them. Eventually they met Gustavo Minas, who already had been shooting the streets of S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo and together they formed the collective \u00e2\u20ac\u0153SelvaSP\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. By getting to know more people, who have the same idea of photography, the group has been and still is growing.<\/p>\n

How is shooting street photography in Sao Paulo unique from anywhere else in the world? Also how do people in the streets generally respond when you photograph them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo is a tropical metropolis without any beaches. You can smell the sweat and feel the tension in the air, which are caused by the endless human masses that fill the streets of S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our way to take pictures is influenced by this daily routine. The usual scenery is dominated by stressed inhabitants, who are trying to find their direction through the concrete jungle and a few crazy people looking for a way to overcome time. You don\u00c2\u00b4t see many tourists around here, who are enjoying the beauty of the city – except by now, with the World Cup happening. From our point of view, S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo is an authentic place that offers so much variety and diversity in between its neighborhoods, shaped by its very own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paulistanos\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo could be defined as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the big apple of Latin America\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The respond varies from a smile, which can lead to other opportunities, to pure anger and misunderstanding. Pretty often, you are being considered as a photojournalist because it`s not common to see people with a camera on the streets.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Rafael Mattar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who were the biggest inspirations in your street photography when you were starting off? And who are your biggest influences currently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

All of us have our own references, but there are some important names to everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is the case of Carlos Moreira, who has been photographing S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo for over 50 years, besides other prominent photographers in the Brazilian scene such as Geraldo de Barros, Thomaz Farkas, German Lorca, Maureen Bisiliat, Pedro Fonseca, Pedro Martinelli, Cristiano Mascaro and many others who were responsible for portraying the city and its historical context. One of our main current references is Lima Photo Libre<\/a>, a collective that develops an inspiring work in Peru.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Gabriela Batista<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The World Cup is taking place in Brazil — what kind of photographic opportunities do you see can come out of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The World Cup is part of a wider context \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the bigger picture is what interests us the most. However, we know it will be a moment of split emotions. Protests on one hand passionate \u00c2\u00a0and Brazilian soccer on the other – whatever are the circumstances, the big picture is on focus, the city and what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening on it.<\/p>\n

What do you think are some of the most important traits of a street photographer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To have the nerve and curiosity. We just need a camera and a “wig”. An excuse to go out.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Pedro Ferrarezzi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is one of the best parts of being part of a collective– and one of the most difficult parts?\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The easiest part is the sense of family \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the experience of being a collective is always positive, we share responsibilities, opinions about our own work and references as well. We all learn a lot from SelvaSP. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost nothing to complain about: we’ve been together for two years so this is still the honeymoon. One of the difficult points is to get together – we try to meet at least once a week. Now we are developing collective essays \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we understand that this is important to get to know each other and learn from other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work.<\/p>\n

What do you think is the overall style of SelvaSP– in terms of aesthetics or subject matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our themes are broad and include anything that involves the universe of each photographer. Our style is wild as Tarzan.<\/p>\n

\"paulo
Photo by Paulo Marinuzzi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What makes SelvaSP different from all of the other street photography collectives out there? \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We don\u00c2\u00b4t know if SelvaSP is different from other street photography collectives and actually who cares? We are just a bunch of friends, looking for a good time together by following the same passion: photography.<\/p>\n

Why do you photograph? What drives you to go in the streets and make images?<\/strong><\/p>\n

40% boredom. 25% flirtation. 20% vanity. 10 % The Search. 5% We don’t know.<\/p>\n

What are some projects that SelvaSP plans to work on in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We want to make a public independent contemporary photo archive of Sao Paulo city. By now, we’re producing a collective series of World Cup related photos, which can be seen on our new website<\/a>. Don’t forget to check our earlier projects, too.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Danilo Arenas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What are some tips and advice you would give to other street photographers who want to create a collective of their own?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make friends, not colleagues. Learn how to enjoy your\u00c2\u00a0time\u00c2\u00a0alone, it’s how you will be most of the time.<\/p>\n

What should foreigners know about Sao Paulo or Brazil before they come there to shoot street photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do not cross the samba, take bottled water, Beware of the Dog, follow the white rabbit.<\/p>\n

More Photos from SelvaSP:<\/h2>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Francisco Costa Lima<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Gabriel Cabral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Olivia Pedroso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Felipe Gabriel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"padu
Photo by Padu Palmerio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"leo
Photo by Leo Eloy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Leonardo Carrato<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Luiz Egidio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Gustavo Morita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Paula Martinelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Sya Fonseca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Felipe Baenninger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Drago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Hudson Rodrigues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo
Photo by Dominik Bo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Follow SelvaSP<\/h2>\n

Website<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook Page<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editor’s note: All photos are the respected copyright of the members of SelvaSP)\u00c2\u00a0 Take a look at this interview of \u00c2\u00a0SelvaSP. They are a street photography collective hailing out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[1625],"class_list":["post-19238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts","tag-selvasp"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/gustavo-minas.jpg?fit=1798%2C1200&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}