Questions for André Boto

When did you start your photography?

I started to photograph when I was 18 years old. My first camera (a 2 megapixel camera) was a birthday gift. In the beginning, photography helped me with my drawing. I started to photograph outside, so I could photograph my painting subject and look at my monitor inside, rather than having to spend all day outside with the sheet of paper and the pencil in my hands. It was comfortable to start using the camera that way.

Then I started to be more and more interested in photography and now I’m a full time photographer.

Is photography your hobby or your profession?

I´m a professional photographer based in Portugal, working in the commercial areas such as architecture, interior, industrial, product and advertising. At the same time, I create my own personal creative projects, where I study a concept and normally I use some or a lot of post-production in Photoshop.

How and where was the image taken which you entered to the competition? Is there a story about it?

My three images were taken in studio. Two of them have a lot of manipulation (title: “Erdbeere“/Strawberry and “Akrobatische Tomaten“/Acrobatic Tomatoes). To create the other one (“Rote Scheiben“/Red Slices), I cut all the objects and painted all of them with red spray. So, in this one, there are no photographic manipulation.

Who and/or what inspires you most?

I really like to try to do something unusual, for me it’s what makes sense nowadays, so our images have impact on the viewers.

What’s your photographic focus?

Right now I’m very connected to images with strong messages. For my personal projects I photograph more global/social issues. Pollution is something that’s a problem, affecting all the people on the entire globe. It’s a theme I’m exploring right now, I’m trying to do my part in making the people more aware about this problem.

What’s your next photo project, your next challenge?

I’m focused on exploring this theme of the global issues, I will pass from pollution to another theme, like war, social media and behavior of people.

Do you include color management in your photographic workflow?

As a professional photographer creating images for the clients, I pay special attention to colors, the meaning of colors and their correct reproduction, too.

What do you do with your photos? Do you print them, post them on your social media accounts or your website or do they simply stay on your hard drive?

Talking about the clients, my images appears in almost all ways of distribution: printed for the outdoors, brochures, catalogues, social media, websites, etc…

My personal projects are mainly used for photographic competitions and some of them for prints in exhibitions.

What’s your photographic goal? What do you dream of?

I don’t have a very specific goal in photography, but would like to win some specific photo competitions. In the end, I just want to leave my own little mark in photography in this world, but I’m too young for that now. 🙂