TIME

Companyfifi tong prod fotog
ClientFifi Tong
CreditsFifi was born on January 10th, 1962, in Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil. Graduated from Art Center College of Design, CA, in 1984 with a BFA in photography. Lived and work in Los Angeles e Milan. Since 1985, lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil, as a professional photographer, in her own studio. Since 2009, focuses mainly on personal project- based work.
PhotographerFifi was born on January 10th, 1962, in Passo F...
PrizeSilver in Book (series Only) / People
Entry Description

"Time", is a series of portraits of people who has lived for 100 years or more, living in Brazil.The photographs are shot with natural light, at their homes. I travel to many cities in Brazil, searching for these centenarians. The project intends to be published as a book. Nowadays, life is prolonged in time, and that was unthinkable, decades ago: you can see how good it is, by looking at these portraits I’m taking. We can think of a longer perspective in the future to a lot more people in the planet. And we ask ourselves: what will we accomplish until then? Or rather, what have we accomplished so far, gives us the energy to get there? These people have stories and maybe these stories are the key to understanding. These stories may bring us a life lesson, a lesson on how to keep living. These centenarians who cross my path, show me many things in their expressions: people inhabited by life and that has understood so much. They become quieter, as if the excess of words is a futility. An image is like them, quiet. An image whispers something so we can pay attention. So this work asks us all: do we look at them as if we want to learn? This work puts the elderly at a level of importance, the importance that the art of the portrait puts the person being photographed. And their looks: sometimes questioning, sometimes contemplative, is always unsettling, their eyes ask: do you see me? In an era where eternal youth is exalted, creating misshapen faces, by the desire to stop time - those who submit to many tricks to look forever young - these old looks, the skin marked and designed by the years, what do they want to tell us? These images, are images that disturb and pacify.