Ana Pinho Vargas photographs the “Silêncio” from her father António Pinho Vargas musical scores
An interview was published by Maria João Costa, from Renascença Radio, about my new exhibition Silêncio, where I talk about the exhibition, my artistic work and my background with music and arts.
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The photographer has until March 22nd, at São João da Madeira Art Center, the exhibition “Silêncio”. Daughter of the well-known pianist António Pinho Vargas and harpsichordist Ana Mafalda Castro, Ana created an exhibition around her father's work.
She says that, for her, photography has music in it. Ana Pinho Vargas is a photographer and has signed the exhibition “Silêncio” on display at the São João da Madeira Art Center, in the district of Aveiro, until March 22nd.
The artist comes from a family of prominent Portuguese musicians. She is the daughter of pianist and composer António Pinho Vargas and harpsichordist Ana Mafalda Castro. Her brother is also a double-bass player, but Ana, who also had musical training, turned to photography.
The “Silêncio” exhibition claims to have a “soundtrack of a very happy life and childhood, surrounded by music of different types”. It may seem contradictory. But for the artist it is not. Her images have music inside, because they portray the musical collection of his father, António Pinho Vargas.
“He looks at my photography, not as a daughter photographing her father’s work, but as an artistic and photographic work”, she says proudly as she traces this artistic path, without her having stopped playing.
Being a photography exhibition about music, where does the title of the exhibition “Silêncio” come from?
The title “Silêncio” was really an idea to contradict the work itself, that is, the photographs have the artistic work of my father, who is a composer and musician, this side of music and scores, of the physical object itself. The contradiction between silence and music is not present in photography, because it does not have sound itself, but music itself has music and photography itself has music.
My idea was always to try to do a project with my father's work, but it would be a my own photography.
I wanted to take the object and make it something new, with another meaning.
How was it to dive into his work? Did your father let you? What was it like to enter António Pinho Vargas work?
It all started when I was still living in Lisbon. It was in one of the classes of my degree that I had professor José Luís Neto, who is a renowned Portuguese photographer, and professor Aníbal Lemos, who is the director of the gallery where I am exhibiting this work.
They helped me a lot to get into that space and that world. I was entering my father's personal space, and I was also starting to feel things about the work.
I always loved taking photographs, I spent days photographing his work. Everything brought back memories, which is funny.
I never thought it would happen that the papers would bring back memories of his works, of seeing his concerts. All of this was linked to my photography work.
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Do you think that having a musical background and having all this family musical heritage helps you to be a music photographer?
Undoubtedly. It helped a lot in my process and in my discovery of what I wanted to be.
But do you think that having a musical background defines your perspective as a photographer?
Yes, clearly, but not only.
The fact that I play the piano and instruments, can read music and am surrounded by music, all of this influences my artistic work.
And also the emotional connection with the music itself, specifically with my parents' work. I think that, inevitably, it is related to my entire artistic project.
