Critical Commentary (3)
As the Hungarian photographer Robert Capa (1913-1954) used to say, if a picture is not satisfactory enough, it is because the photographer was not close enough to the subject. Medeiros’ photographs seem to have been made according to this maxim, showing he was not a spectator distanced from the subjects he recorded. He chose the side of discretion, thus managing to include himself in the scenes to capture the subjects at ease, often at intimate moments. He was one of the first reporters of O Cruzeiro to adopt the German 35mm camera Leica, which allowed him greater mobility to work and rendered his pictures spontaneity.
Medeiros placed emphasis on clearly conveying the information over the formal exploration of compositional elements (angle shots or images bordering on abstractions, for example). He nearly always preferred natural light and eye-level framing, trying to render his images a sense of immediacy. He turned his attention to people, whether famous or anonymous figures of the streets. He focused on their gestures, expressions and movements, seldom trying to record them beside objects or amid surroundings which might reveal their personalities.
Like the German photographer Erich Salomon (1986-1944), who became known in the 1920s as one of the first to portray statesmen in non posed, informal situations, Medeiros also attempted to demystify public personalities, as in the series of photographs made in 1959 showing president Juscelino Kubitschek (1902-1976) eating a mango fruit during a lunch in Brasília.
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Ιφιγένεια Σιαφάκα - Ifigeneia Siafaka
Ενύπνια Ψιχίων 