Artist Statement

Uncanny Places presents Ferreira’s experiments with moving towards a more reflexive method of taking pictures, through which he tries to question his position as the photographer in relation to the external world.

His project addresses binaries such as logical versus magical, rational versus irrational, memory and illusion, awe and fear. For Ferreira, some of these images appear to relate to “a seemingly obscure archive of our unconscious memories.”

The series was shot on various locations in Europe, the United States, China and Russia. Ferreira chose to move through apparently common places with a deliberate aimlessness, without compass – a mode of being which paved the way for moments of serendipity.

He uses double-exposure is intentionally in a very short time-span in the same image, for the same occurrence. Ferreira explains his intention through this “to create a notion of continuity between “there” and “here”, where two  points in time overlap in the same place. The presence of the two physical and chronological layers in the same image contradicts the ordinary flow of perception.”

Artist Bio

Virgílio Ferreira (b.1970, Oporto, Portugal) has been widely exhibited  in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and South-East Asia.

He has published three projects in books entitled, “Daily Pilgrims”, "We and The Others", and "Rainbow" as well as having work published in international magazines, photo art blogs, and webzines.

Ferreira’s work is held in public collections including the Hahnemuhle Anniversary Collection, Germany ; the Southeast Museum of Photography, USA; the National Collection of Photography, Portugal; Lodz Art Center, Poland and the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

For further information please see www.virgilioferreira.com