Carlos Dias back to ‘tell a story in each photo’

Local photographer Carlos Dias will soon present a photography exhibition titled “Magic in the Streets of Macau” that will open its doors to the public on Wednesday as an initiative of the International Institute of Macau (IIM).

In an interview with the Times, Dias discussed the reasons behind his decision to re- enter photography after an absence of over 30 years, as well as his choice to use the streets of Macau as his main photography motif.

Entering the field of photography in the late 1960s, Dias recalled that in those days he used his first camera to take family portraits. Then, in 1969, Dias got a “real camera” as he says – a Pentax Spotmatic – which was the obvious choice at that time as it was “the cheapest you could get [from] that range [of cameras].”

After a year of using this camera to portray the daily life of the city in its different aspects, Dias began submitting his works to international photography competitions, where they attracted praise, earning recognition and awards.

In the last couple of years before deciding to end his photography career, Dias received a top 10 citation and a third-place overall in one of the most reputable international photography competitions. Dias was pleased with that milestone and decided to stop.

“I stopped for about 30 years, [and] left photography completely aside.” That was, until two almost concurrent events occurred. Dias explains: “I was contacted by a friend who asked me if I had any of my old photos of Macau because he wanted to post them on Facebook. At that time, around 2013, I didn’t even had a Facebook account, but he posted and the photos gathered a lot of interest and [praise] from people,” Dias said, noting, “At the same time, my daughter had bought a camera that she used to take photos of her daughter [my granddaughter] that was basically [unused] for more than one year occupying space in a ‘dry box’ that belonged to her brother.”

From one side he was encouraged by old and new Facebook friends to continue taking photographs and from the other there lay a camera just waiting to be taken out to the streets. “Eventually my daughter gifted me the camera and so, unexpectedly, I restarted my photography more than 30 years [later], this time mostly to post [photographs] on Facebook.”

As for the choice of main motif of the streets of Macau, Dias said, “it’s an easy option for me; I can shoot the streets at anytime I want, especially now that I’m retired,” adding, “In fact, we don’t have many options around here, there aren’t models available, there are not many things happening [that are] worth photographing, so [the] streets become a interesting motif.”

As Dias explained, more than the buildings, “the life and the story of a certain moment” is what makes photographs interesting, and he strives to include the “human factor” as much as possible.

Speaking about his 30-year hiatus and the changes that have occurred in both photography and in Macau, the photographer says, “Now [it] is harder to capture […] street life than before,” adding, “because of the congestion of the city, the many cars and the junk and rubbish that are all over the roadsides and sidewalks [that diminish the attractiveness of the scenery].”

The fact that street parking areas have been created in almost every street renders the photographer’s job almost impossible in many cases, as the cars conceal the buildings entrances, the facades, and the people moving around, so in order to get a good photograph, “I need to try to find an angle in which I can avoid some cars.”

In the exhibition, Dias will display only his most recent works from the “Digital Era” collection. In this collection, Dias approaches the streets of Macau in a particular way: “My way. I have my own approach. Most people like to take photos [on] beautiful days; I like the unusual. When I get up early in the morning and I go to the window and see that [it] is one of those very foggy days or rainy, that’s when I go out to capture that on the streets.”

His unique style that delivers vivid images and a sense of a painting, through the use of High Dynamic Range (HDR), has earned Dias many followers on social networks, bringing back a feeling of nostalgia from the “old days.”

According to information provided by the IIM, the exhibition will give rise to a book later this year, which intends to keep these images of the several corners of this city alive, beyond the usual tourist attractions.

The exhibition is open between May 2 and May 11 at the Chun Chou Tong Pavilion in Lou Lim Ieoc Garden.