Bob Burnquist @ Mais magazine

MasterCard campaign

I shot this MasterCard online campaign last year in São Paulo for R/GA SP, and it was an incredible experience. I had the chance to work with old friends, meet new and wonderful people, shoot a fun subject for a great client, all of that in a city that I love!

São Paulo is where I've started my career as a photographer. I lived and worked there for 5 years before moving to New York in 1998. When I got this job, I was excited about working at "home" again. On the other hand, after living abroad for over 12 years, I wasn't sure how it would be like to work with a local team. The experience turned out to be amazing. I re-encountered great people I have worked with in the past, who helped me put together an impressive team: experienced, dedicated, trustful, knowledgeable, hard working, and also friendly and kind. A dream team, really.

Thanks, São Paulo! Hope to be back again soon :)

Portraits of very special chickens for Serafina magazine

Serafina is one of my favorite magazines on the newstands in São Paulo nowadays. First, because I love it's design and the way they use photographs - big! Also because the stories are interesting, most of the time original, and often fun (like this one on chickens!). Editor-in-chief Teté Ribeiro knows exactly what she's doing, and she does it so beautifully well.

So I can't tell how excited I was when they asked me to shoot the pictures for a story on chickens as pets a few months ago. The idea was to create sophisticated portraits of super special chickens and their owners. It was my first time shooting chickens actually, and I was a bit nervous about how they would behave in front of the camera. Specially risky because we were taking them out of their natural habitat, bringing them inside, and firing lots of flashes on them, for quite some time! Would they stay still?? The answer is yes!! I found out chickens are well behaved and photogenic models! :) What a fun shoot this was!

Director José Padilha for Folha de S. Paulo

Director José Padilha was editing his second "Elite Squad" film at Technicolor in LA when we met him for this portrait session, originally for Serafina magazine. The idea was to take a close up portrait of him holding some "weapon" prop, like a toy gun, or a toy granade, to make a connection with his "Elite Squad" films.

So, I flew into LA LAX early in the morning, and drove straight to a Target store to get the props. A little later, I met my assistant at Calumet, we picked up the lighting equipment, some coffee, and headed to Technicolor. After we went through all layers of security, we finally made it to the studio where he was going to be working on his film. We were early. I explained my assistant about the weapon idea, and showed her a little drawing with the lighting set up, so when the doors opened she knew what to do. We had to have everything organized and thought through because we were allowed only 15 minutes with him. There would be no time at all for improvisation!

But.. as a photographer you have to be prepared for the unexpected, always! Specially working with "real" people (as oppose to models). Padilha and his team arrived and met us at studio's entrance. He was very friendly, fun, and really sweet. As I started to explain how the photo was going to be, he stopped me and said "I won't hold any prop, and I won't do any pose at all that suggests I'm holding weapons. I'm not a violent person and I don't want to be seen as such". Great, understood. What now? 15 minutes. That's all we had to come up with a different plan, set up, and... shoot a wonderful portrait ;)

Portrait of cyclist Flavia Oliveira for R/GA San Francisco

Flavia Oliveira is a talented and determined cyclist based in California. I shot Flavia's portrait first for a personal project early last year, at Mount Diablo. I had the opportunity to shoot her again last year, as per R/GA San Francisco's request. Creative director Ricardo Ladin wanted her portrait to be bold and sharpen. Symmetrical octabanks positioned from above created an even front light, while strip banks on the sides helped defining her sillhouette.

I don't work in studios very often, most of the time I work on locations with studio lighting. I have fun integrating giving space and light conditions and artificial lighting. Also, working on location it's always possible to incorporate casual elements to the shoot, and I really like that characteristic. A studio, on the other hand, is a much more controlled environment. The results are more predictable than working on location. In this case, we knew exactly how the images had to look at the end, so the studio portrait was our best option. And it was so much fun!