PUNCTUM
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION - MÁRCIA LESSA
TEATRO MUNICIPAL BALTAZAR DIAS | JUL 03-08
DAVE LIEBMAN
PERICO SAMBEAT
CHARLES TOLLIVER
PAULA OLIVEIRA
The invitation from Funchal Jazz to hold an exhibition as part of this year's edition of the festival became a trip back in time, which I have been taking ever since, browsing, once again, the file folders with the black and white negatives and the countless hard disks where I have been storing my work, since shortly after I started my activity as a photographer, with the appearance of digital photography.
It is a compilation of 32 images, taken since 2001, whose selection criterion was imposed by the photographs themselves over the many hours of selection, and I realized that, more than the names, the places or the year on which they were taken, what most caught my eye in each one of them was the emotion reflected in the face of each musician being portrayed.
Thus, I realized that it would be an exhibition of portraits, made on stage, many of them captured in moments of silence, despite the performative context.
I wasn't interested in the general plan, but in closeups, which were able to expresses more emotion than information per se.
The story told here is a life story. It is the story of my life. Each of the selected images would certainly make up a chapter, but more interesting than this story is the story that each person attending this exhibit will build for himself when looking at these portraits.
Márcia Lessa, 2023
Márcia Lessa was born in Porto in 1979. She graduated in Audiovisual Communication Technologies (ESMAE), specializing in Photography, and since 2002 has maintained a professional activity related to image and photography.
She worked in photojournalism for Jornal de Notícias and Correio da Manhã.
Having collaborated with several theater companies and several national and international musicians, the photography of performing arts has occupied a prominent place in her career.
She was the photographer at the Vila Flor Cultural Center (Guimarães) until 2007 and has collaborated with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in the field of photography and video, since 2010, having held a photography exhibition at the same institution in 2013, entitled Acesso Interdito, which featured images taken during the remodeling period of the Grand Auditorium of the foundation.
In 2016, she produced all the audiovisual content for the exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Delegation in France of this Foundation, entitled Les Universalistes 50 ans d'architecture portugaise, which was curated by the architect Nuno Grande and which took place at the Palais de Chaillot, in Paris, and, two years later, at Casa da Arquitetura, in Matosinhos.
In 2019, for the commemorative exhibition of the 150th anniversary of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, entitled Calouste: uma vida, not an exhibition, curated by Paulo Pires do Vale, she was also the author of the various audiovisual contents of this exhibition, which took place in the headquarters building of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon.
In the same year she published, in collaboration with Nuno Catarino, the book Improvisando - A Nova Geração do Jazz Português, released by Hot Clube de Portugal.
In 2019, she opened the agency Clave na Mão with Sérgio Machado Letria and, while keeping her passion for photography very much alive, started her activity as an agent, programmer and producer of jazz festivals such as Jazz em Monserrate, O Jazz Tem Voz! and Loures Jazz.