JOSÉ LUIZ PEDERNEIRA

LISBON IN THE 70’S

Photographer José Luiz Pederneiras was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, in 1950. He lives between Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. He holds a medical degree from UFMG.

In 1976 in partnership with the musician and friend Tavinho Moura, he received the 1st prize of the Winter Festival, for the audiovisual “Paixão e Fé”. At the time, the work caught the attention of Milton Nascimento, who, upon seeing the work exhibited at the Palácio das Artes, asked his friend and composer Fernando Brant to write a lyric. Passion and Faith was immortalized in Milton's voice and is part of the history of many generations.

The work, a reflection on popular and religious culture in the interior of Minas Gerais, shows the procession of Senhor Morto in Diamantina, during the Holy Week of 1974. At this same time, the Grupo Corpo Dance Company was founded, in which José Luiz participated as one of the founders and where he established himself as a photographer.

According to the photographer's own account: “With dance I learned about the occupation of spaces, the time of a movement, the rhythm of bodies under the action of gravity and the body gesture understood as an artistic language. And I had the opportunity to visit different theaters in Brazil and around the world where I started to photograph the environments and the architecture of these scenic spaces”.

He received important awards such as: 1st Art Prize - Conrado Wessel Foundation (FCW) - São Paulo 2008. “A Capa do Ano” award for the album Serú Girán by artist Charly Garcia - Buenos Aires 1978, Grand Prize at the 4th Winter Salon (1976), FUNARTE Award at the 5th Winter Salon (1977), Gold Award, given by the newspaper O Globo (1999), Professional of the Year Award, photographer category, given by ABP - Associação Brasileira de Propaganda (1992), among others.

He also has several works published in books and catalogs. Having participated in more than 20 individual and collective exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, his work won a retrospective exhibition at the Grande Galeria Guignard, at the Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte, in 2010. In this long journey José Luiz consolidated his career in photography, and today he is dedicated to a consistent authorial production, developing themes related to the passage of time, memory and landscape.

His works are exhibited in several art institutions, and are also available on the Instagram platform, at instagram.com/ jlpederneiras