Márcia Simões
Márcia Simões (Masimmo) is a digital and analogue documentary photographer with a background in law. She has been published by Them Frames. Márcia describes her photography as “a mix of life and...
Márcia Simões (Masimmo) is a digital and analogue documentary photographer with a background in law. She has been published by Them Frames. Márcia describes her photography as “a mix of life and thoughts, with me is always some of my cameras, either the non-professional or professional…Life has a beauty hidden everywhere…most of my work happens when I’m driving and I pass by places which look incredible to my eyes and then I go back with a model or not and do something there”.
The documentary photography of Márcia Simões is heavily inspired by her passion for cinema. She sees photography as an extension of fine film, in a single frame. These photographs have a minimalist approach with an exceptional chiaroscuro, attention to light, texture, and detail. With careful framing, each shot appears like a well-directed video still from a grand, opulent work of film. Márcia Simões has a tendency to have an intense focus on straightforward subjects and scenery, such as a woman’s hands caressing a flower as if the plant were a lover, covered in darkness, or capturing the subtle granular light particles emanating from street lamps onto a landscape or seascape.
Use of models in the photographs are often strategic, with interactions by circumstances, rather than improvisation. For example, a portrait taken by a car’s door mirror emanating red and pinkish light appears as a well-crafted, staged setting to convey theatrical aspects. Other examples would be using light to illuminate a dramatic spotlight on a figure, such as the illumination from a train car and window during dawn or a cat’s-eye-view of a woman seemingly waiting for an encounter under ominous, aging street lamps, covered in pitch darkness. Márcia Simões’ use of light appears similar to light design as she often uses warm colors to brighten a subject, sometimes with color-schematics reminiscent of vapor-wave or synth-wave aesthetics, especially with the reflections and atmospheres she captures. These minimalist, chiaroscuro, intensely detailed photographs reveal an untold narrative of an individual’s documented life through personal travels and exploration of her environments. Much like a journal, she creates recollections and reminisces on the impact these settings have had on her, through thoughtful photography which reveals more theatrical and cinematic implications than what would otherwise initially appear.
Street Lamp V. 4 (pictured above) exemplifies the vapor-wave aesthetics sometimes found in Márcia Simões photography. Through this photography, she captures the perfect timing of pre-dusk as the street lamps just turn on against the backdrop of a shoreline in the distance. We do not see the beach, indicating an elevated capturing. The ocean becomes illuminated by the pinkish and red tints in the atmosphere of the air and the setting of the sun and the street lamp perfectly summarized and compliments this frozen moment in time.
Having a precise eye with immense talent for finding texture and light to create cinematic sequences, Márcia Simões captures the intricate detail in her travels and accentuates them with hints of narrative. These darkly-surrounded and illuminated photographs demand attention but also offer subtle, quiet sustainment, and intense focus on an isolated instance. Márcia Simões elevates documentary photography to contain elements of performance and suspense. Her photographs has us question the subject more frequently and applies peculiar qualities on familiar subjects with specially cropped, light-intense compositions which apply a sense of wonder and even mysticism to our atmospheric realities.