Photography has been associated, since its birth, with the need to represent and reproduce through imagery and, more importantly, with the need to better understand the world around us. Therefore, in the 20th century, photography was described as a mirror of reality. Moreover, due to its ability to reproduce the photographed with enormous detail, definition and precision, it became a great scientific tool. Curiously, while this new medium was praised for its mimetic character and ability to faithfully reflect reality, the creative role of the photographer was radically questioned. قمار الخيل In this regard, the French critic André Bazin said: “For the first time an image of the outside world is automatically formed without creative intervention from man.”

The famous slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”, coined in 1888 by George Eastman, announced the medium’s democratization. Thus began a process where anyone could take photographs, which meant the beginning of the disappearance of the figure of the photographer, less than a century since its birth. In the 21st century, cameras in mobile smart devices have led to the ultimate leap of photography: at the moment, the vast majority of the world’s population has a camera in their pocket and, what is even more significant, they use it daily.

Photography is a memory aid that allows us to easily store moments, locations and scenes that captivate us; images we can see again and again, images we share, images with which we communicate. Photography is also a great tool for learning. Through images we get to know other people, other places, landscapes and ways of life. Photographs are testaments to new advances and the most avant-garde proposals made anywhere in the world. Photography has also become the most popular mode of artistic expression.

For a student, usually curious about his environment, the photographic act is an avenue to experience new points of view about his environment. Thanks to this, an activity that can arise or be understood, at first, as recreation, can become a powerful tool for analyzing and questioning the photographed object or environment. لعبة الروليت مجانا Taking advantage of these properties, the teachers’ task is to show photography’s possibilities as a means of research, documentation, criticism or personal expression. طريقة لعبة البوكر في الجزائر

Today, a student has no problem accessing visual documentation, but rather faces the difficulty of correctly chosing the referents. The huge amounts of images we are exposed to on a daily basis hinders the reception of quality material. And that is why the keys of CONTRAST’s curatorial proposal, to provide the reader with an careful selection of visual and theoretical references, are justified and necessary.

One of CONTRAST’s objectives is to serve as a meeting point for the main Portuguese higher education institutions that use photography as a tool for interdisciplinary learning, providing a link between practices such as architecture, art and design, among others. CONTRAST contains a careful collection of texts written by professors and researchers that offer a critical analysis and reflect on the photographic projects created in the context of the Portuguese education and research. It also includes a collection of photographic projects created by students and selected by each institution or area involved.

The publication aims to contribute decisively to the development and dissemination of young Portuguese photography. It also aims to significant foster the recognition of photography as a language and tool for learning. Its mission is to create synergies between the various photography schools and to unite higher education institutions in a common project that aspires to international recognition.

Initiatives promoted by CONTRAST include the creation of artistic work and the programming of specific actions to expand the scope of creative proposals, involving institutions and local communities and allowing their participation in the conception and creation of projects. Its activity, therefore, aims to break the barriers of higher education institutions and generate a transformative effect in their environments, recovering one of these institutions’ key purposes. The pages of CONTRAST offer a visual map of extraordinary quality for those navigators who want to successfully cross the waters surrounding us.