Valter Vinagre represented with two photographs in the exhibition, “The Present: an Infinite Dimension” curated by María de Corral and Lorena Martinez de Corral, based in the collection of the BESart photography. “The BESart Collection provides a representative sample of international contemporary photography and the most significant example of contemporary photography in Portugal, from the pioneers of modernity to the youngest creators. It follows a path that traces the technical evolution of photographic representation: from portrait to landscape, from fiction to reality.”

Valter Vinagre, from the serie: Variações para um fruto, 2005

Valter Vinagre (1954, Avelãs de Caminho, Anadia, Portugal) is a photographer who creates images of reality without limiting it to defined typologies or subjects. A place in the city, travel and the landscape all may be the subjects of his work, but they do not determine it. Rather they are part of a reflection on reality in a game in which metaphors, portraits and gestures are hidden and then uncovered. This approach, removed from the genre of documentary, may be found in works like Carta do Sentir, a series exhibited at Galeria do Palácio as part of the Vila Franca de Xira Photography Biennale, in 2001, or in Bored in the USA, exhibited for the first time at Museu do Hospital e da Cidade, in Caldas da Rainha, in 2002.

The two works presented here are part of the series Variações para um Fruto [Variations for a Fruit], dedicated to the growth cycle of cherries in the Fundão
region, in Beira Baixa. Similar to other works, it resulted from a practice that transforms the original motive into raw material for parabolas or small, suspended stories. For this set of photographs, Valter Vinagre took inspiration from popular legends and religious metaphors (associated to cherries and the cherry tree), before determining his intervention, as photographer, in time and space. Myths, fables and concrete realities are interspersed as they portray the relation between nature and man: an empty ladder leaning against a tree or a lonely fire, among other images. However, separated from the time sequence that underpins the series, the photographs in this exhibition can survive on their own. The first one shows a cherry tree, which, like a respectable elder, seems to accept the passage of time with dignity. The other depicts a landscape in which a sound or a movement is expected at any moment. In 1996 Valter Vinagre received the 6th Vila Franca de Xira Photography Biennale Award.
José Marmeleira

Selected bibliography
Para, Assírio & Alvim, Lisbon, 2006.
Bored in the USA, Assírio & Alvim, Lisbon, 2004.
Variações para um Fruto, Assírio & Alvim, Lisbon, 2004.
Carta do Sentir, Póvoa de St.ª Iria, 2001.

Valter Vinagre, from the serie: Variações para um fruto, 2005