(H)ugo Costa. was born and lived for years in Portimão, a coastal town in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. He’s a self-taught analog photographer based in Amsterdam, where he has been living in the last few years.
About ‘Compose. (No ideas but in things) Invent!‘ – words by Ugo Costa:
Back to my old days as a bookseller, books were (and in a certain way, they still are) all around me and a cornerstone in my self-education. The Poet William Carlos Williams once wrote, “Compose. (No ideas but in things) Invent!”. When I came across his words, my perception of composition changed completely. My main work comes up during my daily rides. That’s another thing that has always been present: my never ending rides. I like to bike around with my bag full of cameras and my mind empty of any particular ideais. I enjoy the pleasure of just waiting to see what the surrounding may offer. I have always been attracted by the poetry of the materials and objects, microclimates and the small details. I rarely include people in my pictures. There is a natural architecture in the order of things. If we look with the eyes of a poet, we can see way more than what is visible on the surface. The image of a thing creates an idea of what the thing means in the context in which it is specifically used. We do not need to be told what everything ‘Is’, in detail.
