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Timothy Lima
@timmylima
Photographer based in Portugal
Photography stepped into my life because of my dad. I remember when I was a kid that he bought a Canon Ae-1; we were living in the US and the Olympics took place in summer 1984 and this camera was a special edition for the event or so. I had a huge curiosity for it when he had it in his hands at home or when he used it on our outings. I never touched it, but the temptation was enormous when seeing the camera bag, knowing the camera and all the accessories were inside.
After a while my dad did not use it that much anymore and the camera got completely forgotten after some more time. Years later, I was already an adult and had moved to the Azores, I found the abandoned camera in a storage room. Something triggered me… and so I began to learn analog photography. However, with the digital booming I decided to buy a Canon 350D and started to shoot portraits and landscapes with two friends of mine. Today, I still have the old camera but unfortunately it doesn’t work anymore. I simply love having it around as some kind of emotional support and a representation of beautiful memories of my younger years and my dad, since he has already passed away.
"I continued practicing and I received excellent feedback from the photos I took - even the chance to collaborate with a travel agency, promoting photographic expeditions."
However, it ended up not happening for several reasons. I had my career as a professor at the university that I had invested in a lot in every sense, among other circumstances. Sometimes I wonder what could have happened, but I believe that everything unfolds as it does for a reason. Interestingly, this phase of growth and opportunity coincided with a less good period of my life where they had broken into my house and my computer was stolen, containing 3tb of photos I had collected over time, including photos of a job I had completed about the Azores with a friend of mine.
"I got discouraged for a while and took a break on traveling but continued to shoot."
It is a continuous necessity to want to do more and better, and photography offers me the opportunity to achieve that, if I am aware and take full advantage of the moment presented to me. Recently I saw a tweet from Zach Arias, an incredible person and photographer, saying: “To be a good photographer you have to be a good human. Or at least strive for that. Listen. Learn. Correct yourself. It’s not all gear and f stops.” This perfectly reflects the role that photography plays in my life.
"An event that influenced my photography journey was winning a contest of Lab Jovem (photography category) in Azores in 2011."
I was entitled to a scholarship and traveled to Indonesia to take part in a travel expedition with the Portuguese photographer Joel Santos, an incredible person whom I admire and respect still today. I had traveled before, but this opportunity opened my vision in relation to the world and the people. It was a way of learning about things I had no idea about and that made me want to be a photographer and travel the world.
"In 2018 and 2019, I traveled to Africa. This period left me deeply impressed and marked me for the rest of my life."
Everything began in Cape Verde, where I documented the anniversary of a centenary in the town of Tombatouro, Assomada on the island of Santiago.Then I went on two humanitarian missions with AMI (Assistencia Medica Internacional) in Guinea-Bissau, followed by a trip through Tanzania. During the missions, I collaborated directly with the community members, working on a certain project, which gave me the opportunity to support them, help them to somehow create a better future, and thus make a significant contribution to improve the living conditions of the vulnerable populations. I got to know the daily life of a remote and isolated community; the way they live, their culture, their problems…and work on solutions together with them. That has been very special.
"During my last mission I had the chance to meet Jose Luis Nombre, who’s part of AMI."
He has been involved in more than 150 humanitarian missions worldwide and is the definition of kindness, strength and charisma. He told us stories that revealed the best and the worst of the human race. He has seen and done a lot, from seeing a dog devouring a dead child, after which he cried for days, or how he saved three unfamiliar children from genocide in Rwanda with Sebastiao Salgado, a respected Brazilian photographer known for his documentaries created all over the world. All these impressions, stories, and experiences inspired me deeply.
"I returned to Portugal with new insights and admiration for the fascinating capacity of the human being to reinvent itself and transcend the obstacles that the world imposes."
In Europe, if someone loses a cell phone, it’s the end of the world. In Africa, there are days when they don’t have food for their children, they don’t have medicine to cure fever, the roof of the tent doesn’t protect them from the rain… but when we ask them “Is everything okay?” they smile and answer a calm and assertive “yes”. There is always hope and resilience.
"I embarked on the humanitarian mission with the idea that I was going to be able to help them, yet I returned with the feeling that they helped me!"
It was this intimate and visceral relationship with the human creature, stripped of varnished egos and social appearances that so often masks the true essence of Men, that motivated me to return to the African continent several times. Away from the distractions of society, the context of tourism and consumerism, I managed to see the veritable reality, magnificent and magnetizing. And what I discovered and learned was truly inspiring.
"It is in people that you can find the most complex form of being and also the simplest."
I took a photo in Bolama, Guinea-Bissau, that reminds me of this and which is one of my favorites up to today because of its message. Portrayed are two of the children of Ti João (one of the most kind and authentic people I have met in my life), at the door of his house, at “lunch time”. It is lunchtime when there is something to eat; a bag of rice in Guinea-Bissau costs half of the minimum income – for those who have it… but there is never a lack of good mood and positive attitude. Everything is always fine. It reminded me of the true essence of Man, turbulence and hope, love and hostility, resilience and kindness, which, at the end of the day, prevails over adversity, mirroring the eternal and primitive emotional link that unites us. It was an experience that gave a very personal and profound outline to my work as a photographer and that refined me as a human being.
"This photo was also demonstrated at the exhibition Filhos da Luz (children of the light), an exhibition centered on African people that I presented at the Angra do Heroísmo Museum."
It was all about the raw portrait of human emotions, captured in an environment where, despite extreme poverty, adversity, doubt and fear, the perpetual and steadfast triumph of Hope and Altruism can be witnessed. Being able to share this, materialized in print, was something very special, because this work allowed me to express the expansion of my vision about people, communities, and their most intimate and personal experiences.
I shoot different genres, however, I confess that it is the lived experience during these kinds of travels that exhilarates me and that causes an uncontrollable thirst to immortalize moments of a story worthy being told. Immortalize something that does not happen again. I think that what exists at the time of shooting has a very important value, a value that I consider key in what I try to transmit with a photo, and that is the finity and unrepeatability of the specific moment. When I come across a landscape that awakens the mystery of a story that deserves to be told, or when the light falls perfectly on the contours of a face or I catch a glimpse of strength and serenity, I feel the need to photograph. It is not a rational process.
"It is a feeling, an intuition, an automatic response of my body. And perhaps something spiritual."
Life is too short and valuable for us to pretend. We should do what intrinsically energizes us, what allows us to spread positive vibrations to our surroundings. We should develop, evolve, and bring out the best in ourselves, even in circumstances where everything goes wrong.
"Photography for me has been a tool to make better use of my existence as a human being."
On the Azores:
I consider living in the Azores, an archipelago belonging to Portugal, a privilege, surrounded by that much nature and pure energy. There are 9 islands with their own identity that ends up attributing the personality of the people who live on each of these islands. This is something unique and inimitable and a great source of inspiration. I do have many spots that I particularly love, but if I were to mention a few for others to discover I would choose Pico Mountain (whether photographed from Pico Island or the neighboring islands!), Agualva Bays on Terceira Island, Morro dos Frades and Alagoinha on Ilha das Flores and Lagoa do Fogo on São Miguel Island. Landscapes with different stories and vibes, but all with the positive energy of the Azores.
Together with a friend of mine who is a tourist guide at Angre Travel, we came up with the idea to collaborate and organize photographic tours, Terceira Island photo experience, teaching techniques and other tips and tricks while providing the opportunity to people to get to know our island better in relation to its landscape, inhabitants, traditions, history and gastronomy. I think that it is important to approach the tour in such a way that the people get the whole experience. It is an island comprised of folklore, gastronomy, people… and it is essential to incorporate this when we show the natural landscape in order to give the visitor a complete experience, so they can get a better understand of the island as a whole, a better understanding of the reason for “being an islander” and finally create images that transmit the essence of the island.
Unfortunately, as a result of COVID-19 we had to put this on stand-by after we had already received several bookings. We hope to retake the initiative when everything normalizes and travel is again safe and allowed. Feel free to contact me for any updates!
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