WALTER CARVALHO EXHIBITS AT MUL.TI.PLO

Photographer and filmmaker presents for the first time
his artistic production from platinum printing.

The show brings to the public unpublished artworks, the result of his experiments with alternative processes of image production for over 20 years.

"Illuminuras" opens on May 12 and runs until June 24, with free admission.

Known for his work in photography, film and television, Walter Carvalho presents to the public for the first time his authorial artistic production in Platinotype. In "Illuminuras", at Mul.ti.plo Espaço Arte, in Leblon, the artist brings together a vigorous production composed of unpublished artworks from his poetic experiments with alternative and rudimentary printing processes. The show will open on May 12, at 5pm, and will remain open until June 24, with free admission.

Using his own collection of photographs as a matrix, Walter Carvalho acts on the images with strokes of platinum in a complex printing process. The result is "Iluminuras". "New forms and images emerge from the unexpected and are tucked in 'deplaned'. A profusion of blacks and halftones suddenly appears, and may be splinters of light on the objects or derived from them, but with thickness," says Walter Carvalho. In the artworks, of approximately 70 X 90 cm, made on paper, an iron spins as if out of rhythm, in an improbable dance. Stains, residues or traces - the trace of the brush - somehow dilacerate the original images and forms without shaking their stability.

For over 20 years, Walter Carvalho has dedicated his artistic research to the universe of alternative and rudimentary prints: "In 1998 I started experimenting with silver gelatin printing. I even exhibited in 2004, in Instituto Moreira Salles (Rio) and in Paço Imperial (Rio). Then I gradually tried other paths, until I reached the Platinotype. It has been ten years in this study", says the artist. "I see in these artworks an important turning point. In this disenchanted time, the artist destabilizes the form, invests in temporalities that add to his revealing gesture. Walter Carvalho bets on experimentation and poetic risk," adds Maneco Müller, director of the gallery Mul.ti.plo.

One of Walter's interests in the technique, patented in 1873 by Englishman William Willys (1841-1923), is the possibility of uniting different processes separated by centuries of distance. "Matrices are made from mechanical photos with photographic film or digital files. Platinotype allows this meeting between the distant past and the elements of today," says the artist, also highlighting the long durability conferred by the use of the noble metal in photographic prints. "Platinum resists the merciless passage of time," he says. Among the great names in world photography who have dedicated themselves to the process are Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), Edward Weston (1886-1958), Irving Penn (1917-2009) and Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989).

 

 

ABOUT WALTER CARVALHO (João Pessoa, PB, 1947)

Photographer and filmmaker, he graduated in Graphic Design from the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial do Rio de Janeiro (ESDI). Since 1972, he has been active as a professional of the image: in photography, in cinema, and on TV. In cinema, he was responsible for the direction of photography for Lavoura Arcaica, Abril Despedaçado, Madame Satã, Central Station, Yellow Mango, and Foreign Land, among others. He was awarded the Golden Frog at the Film Festival of Cinematography Camerimage, with Central Station, and The International Cinematographers Film Festival "Manaki Brothers" three times. He won the Golden Camera with the films: Foreign Land, Central Station and Rusty Harvest. His double career as a photographer and filmmaker is reflected in all his authorial work. He has several publications, such as the book "Contrasts Simultaneous" and "Photographs of a Film", both by Cosac Naify; "Walter Carvalho - Photographer", edited by the IMS (2003), "Foreign Land, Reading the images of the film Foreign Land", Ed. Dumará. In cinema, he has received more than 80 national and international awards. In photography, the highlights are the prizes in the National Photography Contest of the magazine Realidade, 1972; and the first place in the Nikon Contest (Trip to Mexico), 1973. His latest exhibitions were "Retraço", at the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) in São Paulo, 2018, with text by Texto Agnaldo Farias; and at the Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, 2019. His photographic work is part of the collections of the Rio Museum of Art (MAR), the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP-Paris), the Pirelli/Masp Collection, the Moreira Salles Institute, the Museum of Modern Art (São Paulo) and the Fnac Collection, among others. He is part of the "Photographers Encyclopaedia International, 1839 to the present". He is a member of the Hollywood Film Academy. He has participated in more than 30 photography exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. As an artist, he is represented by Mul.ti.plo Espaço Arte.

 

ON PRINTING WITH PLATINUM (PLATINOTYPE)

Also known as Platinum/Palladium printing, Platinotype is a photographic printing process patented by Englishman William Willis (1841-1923) in 1873. During World War I, the value of platinum rose exponentially due to the military use of the metal and photographers had to focus on other processes. The technique allows the artist a multitude of possibilities for interpreting the image. Thanks to the fine and rich tonal gradation it gives to each photograph, the technique was explored by great names of world photography, such as Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), Edward Weston (1886-1958), Irving Penn (1917-2009) and Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). One of the great advantages of the technique is that it gives the image the same durability as the paper on which it is printed due to the impregnation of platinum/palladium salts into the paper fibre.

 

 

SERVICE
Art Exhibition
Title: Iluminuras
Artist: Walter Carvalho
Opening: May 12 (Thursday), from 17h to 20h
Exhibition: until June 24 (Friday)
Venue: Mul.ti.plo Espaço Arte
Tel: +55 21 2259-1952
New schedule: Monday to Friday, from 11am to 6pm
End: Rua Dias Ferreira, 417 - 206 - Leblon - Rio de Janeiro
Free entry