Frames of Struggle 2022
Frames of Struggle | Quadros de Luta is a work in a way that contrast the historical representation of African slaves with images of activism and resistance of Afro-Brazilian Quilombolas. Historical representations structure the work through a photographic reproduction of your details; These images, as well as photographs of torture objects, are treated through a black and white conversion, followed by digital solarization. The techniques used, based on the procedure of inverting tonal values, aim to produce a effect of estrangement in relation to the representation of the other as a process built from of an aesthetic based on racism and coloniality. Historical images of oppression and violence are contrasted with photographs of activists from several Quilombola communities. The images photographs are created using color films, producing a palette of pastel colors with the objective of creating “pictorial photographs” and seeking in this way to build a new visual history.
Domestic Borders of Europe 2020
The domestic borders of Europe, now – after the Schengen Treaty and with the European unification — are gone. Just mountains, rivers and
imagnary historical lines, are what have left: a liquid frontier between apparently distinct countries.
Empty of its political value, from a strange limbo made of controls and checkpoints the domestic borders become just aline on a map. The
emptiness of the frontier, that have should fill of new life and new dynamics after the unification, get reflected in the territory, and while the world around is changing, on the border the space is assuming a proper physiognomy. “Domestic Borders” becomes a route where each photos is a stop on the way, not searching for answer but interrogating the social reality,
the relations between habitants and the territory and the meaning of Europe today. “Domestic Borders” ends up being an unusual and
unexpected trip, a dystpian portrait of the relationships between and across the border.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Tommaso Rada
Italy
Tommaso Rada is an Italian photographer currently living in São Paulo, Brasil. Tommaso Rada is a documentary photographer working on socio-economic issues. His projects describing the surrounding society are aims more to create questions than to looking for answers. His works has been published in several magazines and newspapers such as Financial Time, Der Spiegel, Courrier International, Washington Post.
Tommaso is a member of Inland Stories.
Awards: Bird in Flight – Shortlisted (2021), Palm Photo Prize 2021 – Finalist (2021), Urbanautica Institute Awards – Winner (2020), PDN Photo Annual Awards – Personal Category – Winner (2018), Sony World Photography Awards – Natural World – Shortlist (2017). Exhibitions: Centro Cultural Camara dos Deputados, Galeria Decimo (2023), Phest Festival Internazionale di Fotografia e Arte Monopoli (2022), Ragusa Foto Festival (2022), Belfast Photo Festival (2022), Verzasca Foto (2017), Encontros da Imagem (2015).