Rui Pina

Rui Pina @gothic_porto (English Text)

Rui Pina was Born in Porto in a poor neighbourhood that was filled With drug addicts and drug dealers. He became a musician and Music Producer. That is his profession now.

A year ago he started taking pictures of people that he founds interesting and a friend told him what he was doing is called streetphotography.

He then Founded the first collective of this gender in Portugal called "portugueses street collective " and you can find it in instagram by the name #streetphotography_pt . Also later cofounded "world street generation along with bobby boston (@88.shotz) and maru (@maru.s.mujica).

Right now he is more into documental Photography and developing some projects.

how did you get started in photography?

I started when i got an i phone 6s a year ago. I've always been interested in recording videos of people in my neighbοr hood living in the strangest conditions and wanted to show the world how people live here but Κ couldn't finish a documentary because it's too graphic and heavy so I decided to delay that. Then I started to photograph the people of my everyday life and people that I meet in the streets, then a friend told me that what I was doing it's called street photography . I started without knowing what I was doing actually.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography changed my life. I was going in a wrong path and it became a passion that made me express myself in a way I would never imagine before. I'm a writer and also a musician but now, for me photos can say much more than words or music. It's my way of saying what can not be written and a sort of therapy also.

Tell us a street story that affected your photography and the way you see things.

At the beginning I was only taking pictures without talking to the persons I was photographing, but one day i met a lady that told me her life story and she carried a photo of her and her husband for 64 year in her wallet. It was then that I realised that what I really enjoy is to interact with the subjects and that they all have life stories that are incredible, but most important I understood the power of a photography that can survive for decades when is printed . Marvellous .

Are u a professional photographer?

No, I'm just an amateur that loves taking pictures with cheap cameras . Still Κ have a lot to learn but Κ would like (in the future) to do documentary photography.

Tell us about how you see things in your country?

Right now my country was invaded by tourists and it brings a lot of good things but unfortunately it turned to a place so expensive in the centre of the city that the people that are characteristic from my town (PORTO) can't no more live there . It's a very poor country where there's a huge gap between rich and total misery. So I have my mission to photograph the people that still carry our culture.