Spring is here! To celebrate hope and the regeneration of life, Luz Editions has selected three photographs by Helena Corrêa de Barros as a starting point to imagine its new capsule collection: "Between poetry and imagination"- a collection of 3 decorative cushions.
But first of all, let me introduce you to Helena:
Unlike Artur Pastor who has spent most of his life photographing the Portuguese people, Helena Corrêa de Barros mainly documented her travels and her privileged social background.
“Since childhood, photography has been the most enjoyable hobby for me. I never made a trip without taking the camera with me and, often, the greatest pleasure was being able to take pictures: if, for whatever reason, it was not possible for me to do it, the tour did not have the same charm for me. ”
That was how Helena Corrêa Barros (1910-2000) described her passion to the “Magazine at the Service of Photographic Art”, in 1955.
Helena Corrêa de Barros started in B&W photography in 1924, at just 14 years old, with her father, Fortunato Abecassis, responsible for companies like Abecassis, Lusalite or Companhia de Seguros Mundial.
That was how Helena Corrêa Barros (1910-2000) described her passion to the “Magazine at the Service of Photographic Art”, in 1955.
Helena Corrêa de Barros started in B&W photography in 1924, at just 14 years old, with her father, Fortunato Abecassis, responsible for companies like Abecassis, Lusalite or Companhia de Seguros Mundial.
She was part of the 6 × 6 Foto-Clube, from Lisbon, through which she participated in several national and international salons (exhibitions / photography contests, open to amateurs and professionals), being, in multiple cases, the only Portuguese woman to participate. Also with the 6 × 6 Foto-Clube, she made several trips in Portugal, especially aimed at photographing. Let us not forget that, at the time, photo clubs were the privileged way of making and showing photography.
More than 70 years dedicated to portraying trips, people and “unique moments”, as she called her favorite way of recording images in which “movement, light effect or position" were perfectly combined.
“Achieving such a moment, combining beauty with good technique, is the ideal in photography. These moments are rare and appear by chance, even when we are looking for them… ”, she told in the same interview.
“Achieving such a moment, combining beauty with good technique, is the ideal in photography. These moments are rare and appear by chance, even when we are looking for them… ”, she told in the same interview.
As the result of her lifelong passion is a collection of thousands of images, which today are divided between the family and the Archive Municipal de Lisboa.
The trips she had the opportunity to do since the adolescence, and which would become a constant in her life, brought her early contact with other cultures and with people outside her family circle. Europe is the scene of many of her images, recording either her visits to cities such as London, Brussels, Athens, Venice or trips to the Swiss Alps, such as the ruins left by World War II on the southern banks of the Arno River, in Italy. In 1950 she traveled to Angola, where she photographed landscapes, large enterprises, workers or the bustle of the markets. Two decades later, she visited Asia, where images of Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand and Japan were taken.
But Portugal is also one of the most central themes of her photographic work, portrayed in images of family moments: Praia Grande, Arrábida, Madeira...
Her favorite cameras, Leica M3 and Leica R4, also traveled with her (an exceptional equipment for a photographer who was never a professional).
Her favorite cameras, Leica M3 and Leica R4, also traveled with her (an exceptional equipment for a photographer who was never a professional).
Life is precious, beauty is all around us, if not in real life then at least in our memories. So let yourself be transported into a world of reverie with these three cushions where each photograph, associated with the illustrations of Louise Lacour, brings you comfort and imagination.
Discover the collection here!
Discover the collection here!
Sources :
Newspaper Publico & webzine Executiva, Fascínio da Fotografia
Photographs:
Photographic Arquives Lisbon & family pictures