Photographer opens studio, says market faces challenging times

António Mil-Homens

The Portuguese photographer António Mil- Homens recently opened his new working studio in Macau.
The photographer with a career of over 40 years in professional photography, having held over 15 individual and 20 collective photography exhibitions as well as having many works published by the media, decided to take the next step in his career.
To learn more about this new place and António Mil-Homens’ ambitions for it, the Times spoke to the photographer in his new place of work.
“This is a little bit of a crazy investment,” he admitted, alluding to the fact that he is aware that sooner or later we will have to leave the building where the studio is now installed since many landlords tend not to rent to the same person for a long period of time, or, in case they do, the rents tend to climb during that period.
“But I think that this is a positive craziness and an alternative to what is currently happening to the photography market in Macau. There are more and more people entering the market; very young people, barely equipped and offering works at very low prices without understanding that they are jeopardizing their own future and those of others working in the same field,” the photographer said.
That is the main reason he decided to invest in a new studio and switch his field of work since “magazines and newspapers are disinvesting in photography and in professional photographers, requesting journalists and editors to do that job too,” António Mil-Homens said.
With this studio António Mil-Homens hopes to be able to “create a new market” in a field that he has always nurtured, targeting mostly “advertising, product and commercial photography,” as well as high-end productions that do not “easily find space in Macau due to the fact that we usually work in tiny places.”
The 115 sqm studio offers multi-functionality and conditions for bigger productions. Life experience has taught the photographer to “have space in Macau for niche markets in terms of creative industries, design products, fashion creators and people from abroad that want to create artistic productions in Macau.”
But the new studio has potential to also be a “space of arts and culture” that can include several forms and with the purpose of being “a gathering space for people who share the same interests.”
Education and training is another field that the photographer hopes the studio can be used for, adding that “there are fantastic conditions here for workshops and courses too.”