Interviews
•Interview for the website Abril Education, 2011
1) On your Flicker profile, you present yourself as a nature photographer. How and when did you start getting interested about this theme?
Ever since I was a kid – I remember episodes from when I was 5 or 6 years old, when I was dazzled by the colors of the butterflies. I always say that first came the interest by nature, and then by photography, this as an instrument to show people the beauty I found on my wanderings. I must have inherited the vocation for traveling, arts, and photography from my grandfather, an engineer that painted disks covers and photographed the nature from Paraná’s countryside. From 15 to 23 years old, I was an amateur photographer, while I was a high school student and later on architecture college, since the beginning with preference on nature themes.
2) What is your routine as a nature photographer (the flux of your job)? Asked on another way, what is a typical day of the nature photographer Fabio Colombini?
There are two distinct phases – the capitation of the images and the agency work. The properly photographer work happens during the travels, on which there is a total dedication to field work, on rain or on sun, because there are always opportunities for photography. These travels occur on environmental conservation areas, like national parks, state parks or particular ecological reservations. They are planned with antecedence so they can be made at the most adequate moments according to the rhythms of the nature. I search for specific images and at the same time I open myself to the unexpected. For example, at the beginning of the year I went to EspĂrito Santo to try to photograph the birth of the giant tortoise or the leatherback turtle. It’s an extremely rare species, since only 4 individuals come to Brazil by eggs, specifically on certain beaches from the state. At the same time that I waited for the probable birth, I focused the local nature, the restinga vegetation, cactus’ flowers, cocoa plantations, oil extraction, anyway, other subjects that presented themselves as beautiful and important. On the second phase, which is the longest, the obtained images must be treated, which is a process of selecting, editing, correcting mistakes, identifying, classifying, storing, and sending for the formatting and indexation to get in the image searching website. On this process I am aided by other people, since the volume of informations and images is enormous. So on the phase when I don’t photograph, the photography studio works as a normal office, with budget preparation, image sending, organizing, accounting, planning, contracts, etc. Ever since the beginning of my career I always had the help from my wife to keep my photo agency running, specially on my absences for image productions.
3) Is there some sort of special equipment for this type of specific job?
There are some lenses that are important, like the big telephoto lenses that can zoom on animals that are far, since difficultly it’s possible to get close to wild animals. There are also the macro lenses, specialized on photographing small beings, such as bugs, spiders, amphibians and flowers. It’s necessary a good, big angular, to capture big landscapes of big dimensions. Accessories like tripods, monopods, flashes, light diffusers, underwater cameras or diving boxes, among others. Anyway, there are numerous and heavy equipments (a telephoto lens can weigh 7 kg) a photographer must carry on his backpack and walk a lot to find his objectives.
4) A lot of your photos are used on didactic books. How did that approaching happened? What sensation do you have to the fact that your pictures appear on these types of publications?
It all began in 1990, when after publishing a report about butterflies on a magazine, an image researcher of a publisher looked for me, since she needed the exact same metamorphosis and birth sequence for a biology book. Then throughout the years, learning and understanding what are the needs for images to didactic books, which frequently guided my photographic production. Today, I already have images published on about 3000 different didactic titles, of all themes. It’s a very good sensation knowing that through the didactic books my photos spread to the whole country, and sometimes will be the only visual references that kids will ever have of nature. The fact that the didactic books are so comprehensive, it democratizes the access to photography and knowledge, which makes me proud and at the same time compels me to do a competent job and with precise information. With great happiness I found didactic books with my pictures on small schools on extremely remote places on the Amazon.
5) In your opinion, what are the virtues of a great photographer? In other words, what makes him an above average professional?
I believe that a set of factors that come from a gift passing by the sweat. Having talent is not enough, you must add responsibility, dedication to studying, interest on the subjects you photograph, constant technological updating, quick client treatment, organization on the photographic production, reliability on the identification of photos, investment on your own job, constant search for new markets, humility and ethics on the professional performance, attention to the market’s requirements. Naturally, the love for what you do is the factor that encourages the effort to accomplish so many requirements.
6) On who did you inspire at the beginning of your career? And today, on who do you inspire?
At the beginning I really inspired myself on the brazilian photographer Haroldo Palo Jr., who developed a work for Kodak, living on the Pantanal for almost a year. I thought it was a fascinating job, especially after hearing a speech on the preparatory course where I studied at. Through all these years, many pictures and photographers have inspired me, like Eliot Porter, Stephen Dalton, Frans Lanting. With the internet, I frequently find unknown photographers from other parts of the world that develop beautiful works, and every pretty image inspires and stimulates me to photograph.
7) I would like you to make an analysis of this transition from analogical photography to digital photography. What got better and what used to be better?
On the transition phase I still questioned a little, since the quality of the digital didn’t reach the analogical one. But throughout the years and the improvement of technology, I practically forgot the analogical. The digital process is much more efficient, helping to develop the photographic quality since it proportionates immediate results and analysis, great image production without cost increase, capitation, manipulation and improvement. The work flux with the editors became extremely fast and was hugely facilitated, since it’s not necessary the physical transportation of chromes anymore, avoiding risks of damage and losses, plus the time spent on the traffic of the big cities. On the other hand, it requires a permanent procedure in front of a non-healthy computer, and it distanced the contact with the client, since everything is made on-line. This impoverishes human relations.
8) What is the reality of the professional photographer today, in Brazil?
I believe that it’s still living the effects of the digital revolution, because today’s professional is not the same than the one from the pre-digital era. Various sectors of photography have lost space, and what was a technique only accessible to few people before, became extremely popular today, on which even children can produce good images. This required an advance and specialization of the professionals so they maintained their required and valued work, inside an avalanche of images coming from everywhere. On the other hand, the authorial photography as artistic expression has been greatly valorized, and galleries, architects and the decoration market have been consuming it more and more. I believe there will always be space for creativity and professionalism, if it wasn’t like that, I wouldn’t have encouraged my daughter to make Photography College. The brazilian photographer is really talented, and the lack of information and formation has been gradually yielding space to good publications and technical and superior courses.
9) Is there any work that has gratified you more than the others, or one that you liked to do the most?
Photographing the nature is extremely gratifying, because at the same time that it can bring numerous frustrations in terms of lost photos, conditions, atmospheric negatives, and even not finding what you wanted to photograph, brings numerous surprises. I may photograph a lot, but I always find different animals, situations of unexpected lights, because I don’t get tired of looking and admiring the nature. Facing heat, cold, bug bites, difficult treks, heavy backpacks, everything dissolves themselves in front of the gratifying sensation of being in the nature and being able to capture its beauty.
10) Were you able to do what you idealized at the beginning of your career?
At the beginning of my career there were several doubts, even if I was going to survive as a photographer, even more as the specific nature photographer. So I think I didn’t make really audacious plans, I went living the moment, searching small objectives, valuing each progress, asking God for His conduction for the unfathomable future. As they say, sometimes the act of traveling is better than the destination you want to get to, and on the travel, I’ve been looking to overcome the constant difficulties and to be happy with the frequent accomplishments.
11) What are your future projects?
There are a lot of places that I would like to go, such as Mount Roraima, the Peruaçu Caves, Africa’s Savannas; there are a lot of pictures that I would like to make, like on-flight insects, the harpy on its nest, the uirapuru; plus fine-art projects and rehearsals that can capture the spirituality of the saints.
Interview for the photographer ZĂ© Paiva, for Floripa na Foto, 2010
When has your interest for nature begun, was it when you were a child? And the photography, especially the nature one, how did it enter your life?
Yes, it began really early, I remember when I was 5 years old, observing intrigued and amazed a butterfly wing that fell on my house’s backyard. The photography entered as a way of registering and sharing the scenes that I saw on the neighbor region of Atibaia – SP, where my parents had a house. Virtually every weekend we went there, and my diversion as a teenager was searching and photographing insects.
How was the change from architecture and publicity to photography?
Even though I loved nature photography, with 16 or 17 years, I couldn’t see a viable future as a professional photographer, so I opted for a more traditional formation, the architecture being a balance between art and technique. I also sought publicity for the use of creativity and communication through the image. But during the university, I did a parallel autodidact course, dedicating all my free time to the study of photography and biology. Before I graduated I was already doing my first jobs on the area, glimpsing the real possibility of being a photographer.
How do you enable your work in nature? Do you make commercial jobs too?
Today, after 23 years of profession, my name and job are well consolidated on the market, and I have the possibility to restrict my acting only at nature photography. But at the first years of my career, the effort to open contacts and conquering clients was really hard. I made jobs on the area of agriculture and institutional, but those were important so I could invest on my rehearsals and particular productions.
What’s your inspiration? What artists inspire you? What works marked you? Books, photos, paintings, movies…Whatever.
The nature photographer Haroldo Palo Jr. was my initial inspiration, since he is the pioneer of nature photography in Brazil – one speech about his work at the Pantanal on the prep course I was studying in was fundamental for my incentive. Among the various works that I have read, the work of Elliot Porter, who focused landscape fragments, graphisms, soil details. Also the Stephen Dalton ones, with images of insects flying captured with high-speed flashes. I also have great admiration for the collages of Matisse, the art of Volpi, Miró, the sacred artist Cláudio Pastro, who certainly contributes for the education of the look and beauty.
What was the biggest blunder during a photographic job, I mean the most difficult situation you have ever faced?
I already faced a lot of tough situations like getting stuck on the Pantanal, getting lost on the Caatinga, running out of water on Raso da Catarina, getting bitten hundreds of times by ticks, slipping close to a waterfall, getting tendinitis for excess of effort, breaking a boat motor in the middle of the agitated ocean. But there was a situation when my car literally sunk in the quicksand of a deserted beach of Cassino-RS, 15 km from the city, alone, the day getting dark, and the tide going up. Fortunately, 12 fishermen appeared on a truck to help me.
How would you resume your work flux, your process, from planning to creation?
Ever since the beginning of my career, I’ve been counting with my wife’s partnerships, which permits me to travel and focusing more on the photographic subjects, while the studio keeps attending the clients. Even so, the biggest part of the job is in front of the computer, just like any office, dedicating to the treatment of images, identification, organization, contracts, proposals, etc. When I’m not attending to specific requests of photographic production, I plan expeditions to places and ecological sanctuaries where I’ve never been, where I wish to deepen a personal project, or was really sought by my clients. I travel with determined objectives and requests, but on nature photography it’s fundamental to be open and prepared for a good surprise or deception.
What motivates you on your personal work?
It motivates me to think that we have an exuberant nature in our country and that few is known about it. It motivates me to always keep discovering new things to photograph and new ways to photograph old things. It motivates me to always get surprised and enchanted by nature and being able to see God through it. It motivates me to know that I do a useful job for society, helping on education, scientific knowledge, and environmental preservation.
What was the work or image that has marked you the most?
I believe it was the one of the phenomenon of bioluminescence in the Emas National Park. It’s a rare event that happens on a specific time of the year. Worms of fireflies inhabit cavities on the homes of the termites, and since that there is a large quantity of them through the park’s fields, the vision is incredible – thousands of small and tenuous lights on the night landscape. Since there weren’t any digital cameras, the job required me to stay a few nights producing long exposition pictures, in the silence and loneliness of the cerrado, without the certainty that my job was going as planned. Every time I look at the produced chromes, I remember exactly the lived sensations.
What is the place in Brazil that you consider the prettiest or the most sacred? Do you have a secret spot? And in the world?
I dedicate my attention especially in Brazil, since we have the biggest biodiversity in the world. There are a lot of places that I consider precious, like the Chapada Diamantina on its rivers, rocks, caves, waterfalls, plants; or Fernando de Noronha on its beaches, birds, tones of blue, turtles, fishes. But the Atlantic Forest is the special place for me, on the chaotic and harmonious combinations of green, shapes, leaves, water, bugs, fungus. There is the place where I find the Sacred, the Beauty, the secret and discreet place that I never get tired of admiring.
Interview for the magazine Ciência Hoje das Crianças, 2010
On the book Fotografia de Natureza, you tell a bit of your experience to encourage new talents on this area. I believe that, among our readers, we will not have new talents, but really new talents, since we’re talking about kids with ages between 7 and 12 years. Even so, I would like to begin asking what animals do you think that a child around that age will be able to photograph? Why?
Nowadays with the digital cameras it’s a lot easier to photograph. The machines are small, but with powerful lens, catching things that are far, and even the small ones. So they can start photographing close to their homes, on the garden, parks, squares, zoos. You can set an aquarium at home or a terrarium and following their lives. Bugs are everywhere, and they always surprise with their beauty and curiosity. When you go travelling, ask your parents to make ecological tourism, in the Pantanal, in the Amazon, in Bonito, on the Petar Caves – There are always options to photograph nature in Brazil. In some parks, farms and hotels there are wild half-tamed animals that get really close to the people and let themselves get photographed, like coatis, squirrels, birds, parrots, crocodiles, monkeys.
On what must a child who wants to photograph an animal must be focused on? Not only in terms of security, but also details that make the difference between a good and a bad picture?
Normally it’s not easy to get close to wild animals, since most of them are scared of humans and run away. So a lot of persistence is required to try to get closer, taking a lot of pictures so that at least one of them turns out to be good, watching if the background of the picture is nice, waiting for the animal to do a nice pose, catching him eating or doing an activity, seeing if the light illuminating him is pretty. About the beauty of the light, normally the worst hours to photograph are between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., especially if the sun is shining. On cloudy days, the gentle light that comes from the sky is also really good to photograph. Try avoiding as much as possible the use of flashes, since everything is prettier with the natural light. It’s always necessary to look out where you step, not putting your hand in holes, nests, dry leaves on the ground, because those are places where snakes, spiders and scorpions hide. Always use sunscreen lotion, use comfortable sneakers, hat, insect repellent, bringing water, rain coat, never approach cliff edges, and be really careful with wet rocks, on rivers and waterfalls.
Must the nature photographer have a specific behavior at the time of the job? How must he behave in order to obtain good animal pictures?
First of all he can’t be lazy – he must wake up early, before sunrise, and work till the end of the day, sometimes even at night. You must have a lot of patience, watching everything with attention, making silence while you walk in the jungle, not frightening or running after the animals, and moving reeeealy slowly when you see an animal, not stepping on the plants. It’s always good to have in mind an objective about what do you want to photograph, paying attention to the climate conditions (rain, sun, wind, fog), try not to deviate from the roads and knowing the pace so you don’t get lost. Nature can show us beautiful scenes, but we must have sensibility to search, wait, admire. It’s the creation of God, so it deserves respect, affection and care.
Do you think that a nature photographer needs to know the habits and the characteristics of the species he decides to photograph? On what can this be useful?
That’s super important. The nature photographer spends more time reading about nature and the animal’s lives than about photography. I always liked to go to libraries and bookstores to read books about animals. Bugs are hidden under the leaves – I need to know that to find them. Birds make nests on spring – you can’t just look for them on autumn. The anteaters have a really good nose – I can only get close to them when I walk against the wind. There are some sympathetic monkeys but they can bite – I need to watch out. Therefore it’s really useful to watch TV documentaries about wild life, reading books, encyclopedias and learning how to observe the nature. So you can know if an animal is rare or not, if a snake is poisonous, the name of the insect, from what bird does that singing comes, where do I find bats, and so on. I already have photos published on more than 2600 books, must of them didactic, which in addition of teaching scientific questions to children, create an ecological feeling, a motivation to love and preserve nature. I have also published numerous pictures on the magazine Ciência Hoje das Crianças, which always opens a really nice space for nature.
You have interest for photography since what age? Was it present on your childhood?
My grandpa used to live in Paraná and he liked to photograph its landscapes. But that was more than 70 years ago. This taste for photography and nature that he had passed on to me. I started to take pictures when I was 11 years old, on a vacation with the family. But on that time it was way more difficult to photograph since there weren’t digital cameras, on which we see the results immediately. We had to wait several days to see the pictures, and if it got dark, shaken or out of focus, there was no other way. After that I began to know nature better, getting fascinated and pointed my camera to it, this with 13 years old. But it required a lot of fight, effort and determination to become a professional photographer. I am happy that my daughter is going to have entrance exams to a photography college and will have a better formation that I had. I’m also happy for a 11 year old boy called VĂtor, who went to my book’s release event to get my autograph because he wanted to be a nature photographer. I think that with so many new technology and information, you can begin photographing a lot earlier nowadays, and new talents today will be great photographers tomorrow.
Interview for the magazine Publish, 2008.
When has the photographer profession begun? Was the influence from the family?
Photography for me was a hobby, since my teenager years. At architecture college, I dedicated a lot of time to the study of photography, making my first works and publishing the first pictures back at the day. I worked as an image editor on an image agency. All of this opened a perspective for me to work on this area which only appeared at the end of my college. My parents never opposed to my projects and always supported me financially. Throughout my career, the assistance, support and direction of Edna, my wife, who works with me for almost 20 years.
How did you choose nature photography? Have you always had contact with animals? Have you always had contact with animals?
Actually I didn’t choose nature photography, it was nature that chose photography. It enchanted and conquered me, and photography came as a way to register and divulge it. This love came from childhood to teenage, in contact and observations on travels.
How did you get to macro photography?
In nature, mainly the small beings attracted me. I got intrigued and wondered with the movements of the ants, the colors of the butterflies, the abilities of the dragonflies, the disguises of the moths. For me it was something unexplainable, divine, had to be shown. Then I entered to macro photography with its capacity to enter in this micro world.
What do you think about digital photography?
It has a wonderful side because it popularized photography tremendously, making possible the production of images that were exclusive access to photographers only. For the photographer it was really positive, since it speeds and facilitates a lot the obtaining of certain images and it gives the safety of a job correctly done. However, this easiness forces the professional to specialize more, improving technically and artistically his job.
How was the transition from analogical to digital? Do you still use films?
At the beginning, the quality of capitation of colors and resolution left a little to wish for, which brought me to produce with digital and film at the same time. 2 years later, I have always been producing with digital, making books and wall calendars with impeccable quality. For nature photography, on which it’s necessary to do long vacations, the digital has been a great ally.
On what professionals have you inspired into at the beginning of your career?
On Brazil, on Haroldo Paiva Jr., one of the precursors of wild life photography. On the exterior, on Stephen Dalton with his flying insects, and on Eliot Porter with his details of chaotic soils.
Who inspires your works today?
God and His infinite beauty.
What was the most difficult job you have ever done?
Photographing bats flying on the Amazon. Where we had to wait 3 nights in a row, waiting several hours in the jungle, making several attempts for really few positive results.
How many books of your authorship have been published? Is there a new project in development?
There are pictures of mine in more than 1800 books. I highlight the most recent authorship book, “Brazilian Nature in Detail”, which brings a really differentiated vision of nature through macro photography, with exuberant texts of Evaristo Miranda. There are several projects in development in and out of the nature area. But that still can’t be revealed yet.
In an article, you claim that it’s not only a good equipment that makes a good photo, but also who’s behind the camera. What must a professional do to become a great photographer?
I think that there is no formula. Each person traces a particular way, which contemplates all of his qualities, defects, gifts, possibilities. He can become a great and unknown amateur photographer, or an empty and famous professional photographer. I think it’s important, yes, to target on the great professionals and the great artists, aiming for improvement, but specially making a happy travel, without the worry of where you will arrive, because everything is fugacious.
You have a collection of pictures on the Internet. What represents, today, the Internet to the professional?
The Internet facilitates a lot the traffic of images on daily life, avoiding the necessity of physical transportation of images, in addition to open the possibility to hit the whole world. Our internet image bank has more than 22000 images, and it’s the main relationship tool with our clients. On the other hand, the digital revolution brought a great exigency for speed and efficiency. We must look out so it becomes an ally, and not swallow us and deviate us from the right way.