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Posted On: September 23rd 2023, 06:19 pm
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In Gleeson Paulino’s dreamlike series, water serves as an immersive reconnection to his native Brazil, acting as a catalyst of renewal, forgiveness, encounter, and play.
A figure, face hidden, emerges from the dark water. The notches of her spine are visible under the silky expanse, her hair splayed across her back in thick stripes. The outline of her form feels electric, alive to touch as she breaches the surface. The photograph is titled Alvorado (Dawn); the rebirth of a day, or perhaps a life. A baptism.
Gleeson Paulino’s evocative body of work Batismo takes the concept of baptism as one of immersive reconnection. Born in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Paulino was raised in a conservative Evangelical family. His childhood and early adolescent experiences were bound by the strict rules of religion, overwhelming his sense of self.
“Photography allowed me to escape my reality,” notes Paulino. Leaving Brazil at 17 was a way to explore the world at large and the one closer—the world within himself. “I felt caged for many years, inside of this religion. I never had a chance to actually get to know Brazil.” He decided to move to Europe, and began to work at photography studios, assisting on shoots and accepting editorial work. At 19, a friend took him to the seaside, where Paulino was too shy to admit that he had never seen the ocean. “I grew up in the middle of Brazil. I had never seen the beach before moving to England.”
The photographs that make up Batismo are arresting, the result of a searching, exploratory eye. Paulino’s compositions are simple, direct. Juxtaposed against the beauty of their color they draw the viewer in. In Frutos (Fruits), hands grasp eggs in a bowl whilst a red hammock, slashing through the frame, cradles a figure. In Temor (Fear), the image is filled by a hand clutching a green shirt, twisting the religious image into a vortex. “I’ve always been fascinated by how light enters a space and shapes it. As a child I was always interested in how light changes everything.
✍️ Magali Duzant
Artist : Gleeson Paulino / @gleesonpaulino
A figure, face hidden, emerges from the dark water. The notches of her spine are visible under the silky expanse, her hair splayed across her back in thick stripes. The outline of her form feels electric, alive to touch as she breaches the surface. The photograph is titled Alvorado (Dawn); the rebirth of a day, or perhaps a life. A baptism.
Gleeson Paulino’s evocative body of work Batismo takes the concept of baptism as one of immersive reconnection. Born in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Paulino was raised in a conservative Evangelical family. His childhood and early adolescent experiences were bound by the strict rules of religion, overwhelming his sense of self.
“Photography allowed me to escape my reality,” notes Paulino. Leaving Brazil at 17 was a way to explore the world at large and the one closer—the world within himself. “I felt caged for many years, inside of this religion. I never had a chance to actually get to know Brazil.” He decided to move to Europe, and began to work at photography studios, assisting on shoots and accepting editorial work. At 19, a friend took him to the seaside, where Paulino was too shy to admit that he had never seen the ocean. “I grew up in the middle of Brazil. I had never seen the beach before moving to England.”
The photographs that make up Batismo are arresting, the result of a searching, exploratory eye. Paulino’s compositions are simple, direct. Juxtaposed against the beauty of their color they draw the viewer in. In Frutos (Fruits), hands grasp eggs in a bowl whilst a red hammock, slashing through the frame, cradles a figure. In Temor (Fear), the image is filled by a hand clutching a green shirt, twisting the religious image into a vortex. “I’ve always been fascinated by how light enters a space and shapes it. As a child I was always interested in how light changes everything.
✍️ Magali Duzant
Artist : Gleeson Paulino / @gleesonpaulino
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