Magnetic photographs by Henri Prestes

6 years ago

It happens that the head feels heavy at night, full of ideas and messy thoughts; that sleep is late to come or never does. When this happens, you try to go out despite the dark, cold or bad weather. The need for fresh air increases and the night silence attracts us, so we enter in the shadow of places that seem to be changed as the light changes. They look different, no longer familiar or immune to change as we thought they were. This type of suggestion is the fil rouge that links Henri Prestes’ images, Portuguese and cinematic photography artist: an immersive, emotional and sometimes surreal storytelling.

hen you’re able to create something capable of touching the exposed nerves of the observer, you can arouse turbulent emotions: in front of these works, there are those who feel shaken, disturbed and those who feel enchanted or finally understood. It’s not the photographs that are aggressive or fascinating: it is us, it’s the feeling with which we decide o fill the atmosphere evoked by Henri Prestes.

Spontaneously, we empathize.

We take part in the scene represented, worthy of a film, and, observing it carefully, we can also take out the soundtrack.

Suspended in the mystery of the represented landscapes, we wander, as the characters who inhabit these photographs do. In the Perfect Darkness collection, in particular, the sense of suspension is accentuated by the aquamarine palette, letting the introspection take over.

Rarely, however, our gaze is left to itself. We are often accompanied by a human presence – even if at times it appears alien -, or by a light, perhaps faint, maybe distant, but existing. This company can be an additional element of anxiety as well as heartening and, once again, it depends on us and our subconscious.

We’re talking about art, so much that it’s difficult to distinguish these images from photographs to paintings. We are called to an emotional intimacy that we are not used to having, but that we can train and research in the Instagram feed of Henri Prestes, or on his website.