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Ângelo Jesus
I am a landscape explorer and passionate photographer based in Porto, Portugal. I was fortunate to start early, developing a deep connection with nature thanks to the practice of mountain climbing and backpacking. Photography came later as a way of trying to express not only the beauty of my surroundings, but also the spiritual experience of being there. Mountains and forests are my favourite environments. I love to discover unknown places not very far from my home and through my vision inspire other people to engage and reconnect with the natural world.
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
In this issue, we talk to Ângelo Jesus from Portugal. It’s a country that some of us think we are familiar with from our holidays, but his photography shows a side of the country we may not know so well – its mountains and its woods. The latter have been his focus for the past few years and our image selection shares a little of their atmosphere and the visual puzzles that Ângelo attempts to decipher.
Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself – where you grew up, your education and early interests, and what that led you to do as a career?
I was born and raised in the city of Porto. There, I completed high school and later specialised in the tech area, something that would become my professional career up to this day. I currently work as a service engineer in a large technology-related company.
In my free time, besides photography, I practice sports, something I've always done since a very young age and I am also regularly active in outdoor activities like mountain climbing and backpacking.
Battlefield
How did you become interested in photography and what kind of images did you initially set out to make? How much time are you now able to devote to your passion for landscape photography?
My relationship with nature started long before I became a nature photographer, so my photographs are mostly a consequence of my experiences. From a very young age, I’ve been fascinated with nature, exploration and adventure. I remember watching every film and documentary that I could about those subjects, and they made me dream that someday I could experience something similar. Part of that dream came true when in the early nineties I started mountain climbing and backpacking with a group of friends. From then on the mountains became a passion and an addiction. Photography came later as a way to document my adventures, but at that time just using a small camera and only in “auto mode” like most people do when they are starting. Over time, I realised that the images that came out of the camera never translated very well to my visions and what fascinated me in the landscape. Therefore, I upgraded to a DSLR and progressively tried to learn how to control the final results instead of the camera.