RENATO NAVES PRADO

Fragments of a Meditative Process (2005–2015)

This photographic work records a decade of transition and existential investigation through street photography. What began as an intuitive practice of a student taking photographs on the street to learn—exploring the urban space without the formal awareness of the term street photography—evolved into a process of immersion and self-knowledge.

Photographing became a meditative state of absolute presence; the street ceased to be an external backdrop to become an experimental atelier. While my professional work in documentary cinema as an editor required assembling the narratives of others, analog photography offered me a space to think about life. In it, the act of walking and observing was an exercise in mediating my relationship with the world and my way of inhabiting it.

The materiality of film was fundamental in this journey. From 2011 onwards, the project found its technical identity in the systematic use of Ilford HP5 film, frequently exposed and developed using push processing (ISO 800 to 1600). This choice resulted in pronounced grain and deep contrasts that allowed me to maintain a good depth of field with my 28mm lens, the one I used most. In 2012, I also began using inexpensive color films that were developed in standard commercial labs.

The themes were not predefined; they revealed themselves a posteriori, during the editing process, almost as an analysis of what caught my attention. Over the course of ten years, these images became traces of affections, places, and personal changes. The work features images from Goiânia and the interior of Goiás, Argentina, and Portugal.

More than a visual record, this work grounds my belief that the act of living and observing is, essentially, a political act, regardless of where your camera points. Photography here is not an end, but a philosophical instrument to explore life as we live it.

This cycle ended organically in 2015, marking my transition to new geographic territories and to digital photography, where today I continue to investigate the image as a professor and researcher in the fields of visual culture and practice-based education.