Ultimately, Taves chose Ireland for its contrasts to Brazil, and was lead to our shores by her sense of adventure. ‘I found the pace of life relaxing, the people charming, and the land enchanting. Since 2001 I have visited several times, and have had numerous exhibitions of my work which contrasts the two countries.’
Photography Ireland is one such project, which is her ongoing exploration of the differences between Brazil and Ireland. It was also an opportunity to immerse herself in the Irish culture, and describes her effort to create images of ‘Ireland’s traditional celebrations, music, people, different colours, architecture, chaotic traffic and so on, as the most challenging path in her career.’
The project was funded by the Irish Embassy in Brasilia, and sponsored her shows in Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, and Salvador. The Brazilian embassy in Dublin would be an equally important connection, as she brought images from her homeland to her new place of residence with Celebrating Easter in Brazil, which has shown in Trinity Chapel, Trinity College and the Aleijadinho Museum in Ouro Preto, Brazil.
‘In the beautifully preserved baroque town of Ouro Preto,’ Taves explains, ‘Local people worked through the night to carpet the Resurrection Procession route for several hundred metres, with Easter motifs made out of coloured sawdust, and I had the idea to organise a photographic procession made by banners, with the people from Capoeira holding them.’
This is a sight that many of us would have never had the opportunity to see, had Taves not been present to record the images of this beautiful work for posterity. Not only did she find a unique way to reproduce these images — printed directly onto PVC board in order that they could then be mounted on wooden sticks and thus turned into banners — but the exhibition in Trinity Chapel honoured the sacred roots of the images by incorporating song and the holy word of the gospel, resulting in a moving and creative way for people to experience photography.
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