TITLE: From the bottom of the ocean

It all begins at the bottom of this bay, a dark world where the presence of man is not welcome. It's in this realm, strewn with iron and sharp plates that come apart from the hulls of ships that are succumbing to rust, that a group of fearless youths defy immense risks every day to retrieve iron to sell. It's a titanic effort that only ends on the beach when they succeed in loading the heavy pieces onto bikes that take them to a zone where they are weighed.

AUTHOR: João Coelho (Portugal)

I was born in Angola, but the war of independence in that country forced my family to restart their lives in Portugal in the mid-70s, where I graduated in Law, developed an important part of my professional career in law and banking, and where I took my first steps into the world of photography. In 2007, responding to a strong call from my homeland, I returned to Angola where I am still living and working on auditing and consulting projects focused on the modernization and institutional development of the public sector. The demands of my professional activity and perhaps some fear of photographing in an unsafe environment have led me, unfortunately, to turn my back to photography for quite some time. The rediscovery of that passion as I realized the variety of motives that surrounded me and the gradual release of the fears that blocked me was an extremely enriching and rewarding process. Today, whether telling stories through photography, doing curation in some groups and websites, or simply sharing experiences and achievements with a fantastic community of colleagues and friends, photography is an essential dimension in my life as a form of personal fulfillment and inspiration. My photographic work has also had the merit of shaping my way of being, having radically transformed the way I position myself in the world and how I look at everything around me. Today, after having looked into the eyes of survival and resilience, I am a simpler person, more restrained in my aspirations, and I value more the little things and the small attitudes and gestures that can change the world