RURAL MOMENTS

(Portugal 2008-2013)

Rui Pires spent his childhood in rural areas, capture the essence of the rural people has always been a challenge that has captivated him. The ease of communication between the author and rural people facilitated the process.

It all began in 2007 when the author visited "Covas do Monte" and found one of the last places where the word humanity makes sense. Simple people, workers, people for whom the word “euro” or “political” means nothing. The author met Maria "Piqueirinha", Maria do Martins, Antonio, Frances, Anne, Luciano and many other wonderful human beings living in absolute community and work in agriculture.

They help each other like a big family. In the course of time, the author has begun to be considered a true friend and like family for all these people, and since 2007 he becomes part of their lives, their joys, sorrows, and unfortunately, to attend the passing of almost all of them. This way of life virtually extinct, where humanity, the word, mutual assistance, help in good times and bad times still persist, the author decided to start this documentary in order to show future generations these ways of life endangered in opposite to lack of humanity that happens in big cities and in modern way of life. In this sense, for some years author travelled the paths of the mountain to follow the life of rural people, establish relationships with them so that the camera was something that they would forget. And author used a huge camera. Unfortunately, these ways of life are disappearing and during the production of this documentary the author witnessed the death of most of his rural friends, the human elements that have been documented photographically.

More than once, very sad moments that almost led to abandon the project due the strong friendship established with these people that finished in a sad way. Most of this people were very old, from 85 to 95 years old, these villages have few young people, most of them leave to big cities in order to study and get a job. Maybe this way of life became to be the future again, with the lack of jobs, the fall of the industry in Europe and the crisis. In “Rural Moments” villages, the word crisis is unknown, maybe because this is the last places where the word “humanity” makes sense.

“People often talk about the timeless quality of B&W; however, it isn’t often that we see the timelessness of B&W brought so vividly to life.Rui Pires has done precisely that. Rui Pires is a photographer from Portugal, whose Rural Moments project just left us speechless.”

Eric Rudolph

( American Cinematographer and extensive writer for the major photography magazines (Popular Photography, PDN, others), and was East Coast Contributing Editor)

“Rui, I had a chance to look at your work from Portugal and was impressed with your images.Great use of black and white film in a time when digital is so prevalent. Best of luck with all your endeavors!”

Steve Mccurry