For Ana Luzes, documenting life in Brazil is just as important as teaching children how to do it.
“Allowing these people to dream and create narratives from images leads to what is being said—it is writing one’s own story,” she shares.
It’s been five years since Luzes became a professional photographer, and her passion for portraits and documentary photography has been instrumental in showcasing to a broader audience what Brazil looks like—the life, the people, the everyday reality they experience.
But for Luzes, teaching photography to children from peripheral communities, as she calls it, is also important—if not necessary.
There is something about being represented that creates this feeling of liberation. And that is something that Luzes wants to give to these children—the knowledge of how to produce images that capture their community from their perspective.
Shutterstock chatted with documentary photographer and Create Fund winner Ana Luzes.
Shutterstock: Your Shutterstock profile says, “In search of photographs that move towards freedom.” What do you mean by that?
Ana Luzes: Freedom does not have a destination, but it does have a path. I believe in free images that lead us to healing processes.
I love it when a child looks at my photos and says, “That person looks like me.” Is there anything more liberating than feeling like you belong? Feeling represented?
Images that move toward freedom have the ability to reach anywhere. I look for photographs that heal, generate expectations, and liberate.
SSTK: I love that you mentioned healing and liberation. What does that look like? What is a liberating image?
Luzes: A liberating photograph is one in which we recognize ourselves in it. We live in a world with so many cultures, each with its own particularities that can perhaps only be seen and understood through an image.
I would describe these images as unique but with a broad perspective, creative and embracing different cultures and identities.
SSTK: What kind of photos will you never get tired of taking?
Luzes: I love documentary photography, especially portraits. It’s usually a type of photography that tells stories and takes time to complete.
In this field, I get to meet a lot of people and get closer to their daily lives. It’s a job that allows ordinary stories to become extraordinary.
SSTK: And how long have you been photographing professionally? Is it your full-time job?
Luzes: I have been a professional photographer for five years and, today, I make my living from photography. I teach photography classes to children and young people from peripheral communities.
I do documentary research on the daily life of Brazilian favelas, and I do some authorial work.
SSTK: What do you mean by peripheral communities? And why do you think it’s important to teach photography to children in these communities?
Luzes: Peripheral communities are places where low-income social groups are concentrated. They often lack access to education and basic sanitation, and are places that are constantly made invisible and are subject to violence.
Teaching photography to children and young people in these communities allows them to express themselves through images.
Photography transforms perspectives and the way we see the world. Believing in this, I think that if they increasingly document the experiences and cultural richness that we have in Brazilian favelas, the visibility of the reality we live in will be greater.
Giving voice through images is just one point from which art can take us. Allowing these people to dream and create narratives from images is leading to what is being said—it is writing one’s own story.
The best way to talk about survival is to be alive, creating and being creative in expressing ourselves.
SSTK: Love that powerful response! What’s something you wish someone had told you early on about photography?
Luzes: How challenging it is. But beyond that, the infinity of incredible things that can be said with an image. The secret of photography is 99% in the light and good composition.
SSTK: Can you expand on what you mean by “the infinity of incredible things that can be said with an image?”
Luzes: Photography gives us the freedom to build narratives.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer, in her book The Danger of the Single Story, says that “a single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are lies, but that they are incomplete. They make one story the only story.”
I believe the writer meant that what we consume en masse is often not loaded with the details that make up a culture.
Brazil is a country of soccer and samba, but it is also a country that is home to thousands of passions, cultures, and diverse religions. And the way we present this to the world is through the responsibility of what we say in images.
I like being able to tell my story; I love being able to talk about the cultures that cross my path.
SSTK: In the many years of doing this, what’s one challenge that really changed your perspective or something that really strengthened you?
Luzes: I have been through several situations in photography, one of which was entering the market as a black woman. In my city, there are few references for documentary photographers. It is difficult to access some places alone.
I graduated in photography from the University of Vila Velha in 2020, the year of the pandemic. Imagine how difficult it was to enter the job market while living in social isolation. It was a year of many challenges, but it was the moment when something changed in my perspective on life.
In 2021, I discovered the Serenata d’ Favela Institute, which is a social organization that acts as a reference for art and culture in underprivileged communities. I started teaching photography classes to young people in these communities and also portraying the daily lives of people in these spaces.
From that moment on, I understood the power that an image can have. I photographed non-stop. It was exciting to portray so many stories and families, feeling part of a greater goal.
SSTK: Why do you think photography is important?
Luzes: Photography is important because it is the greatest proof of existence, as if to say, “I was here in this huge world.”
It takes information to places we never imagined, complementing history and documenting events.
SSTK: Yes! So, how has The Create Fund impacted you?
Luzes: It was a great opportunity to take the images I love so much to other places, in addition to having a purpose aligned with what I believe in—images that embrace reality.
I am very grateful to be part of something so important. Through mentoring, I learned that my photographs can be inserted into the advertising market.
SSTK: And how has photography impacted you?
Luzes: Photography has become my voice—the way I communicate with the world. I joke with my students that every portrait I take is a self-portrait of myself. As if, somehow, each click contains a bit of my story.
SSTK: I love “Every portrait I take is a self-portrait of myself.” Can you expand on that?
Luzes: Henri Cartier Bresson, a French photographer, said that photography is about putting your eye and your heart on the same page. In photography, one thing will always influence you—the photographer.
Our stories—everything we experience, our culture—directly influence the way we see ourselves as people. When I say that each portrait is a self-portrait of mine, I mean that the way I see the world is there, like a signature.
For example, two photographers taking pictures of the same subject create completely different images because each one has lived and has a different background.
It’s all about perspective.
License this cover image via Ana Luzes.
This post was originally published onNovember 19, 2024
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