PHOTOGRAPHY
Arctic Trails Series, 2019
The Arctic Trails Series emerged from an expedition through Greenland, beginning in the village of Kulusuk. Along the journey — between fjords, glaciers, and traces of an old American base from World War II — I document the coexistence between the vastness of the natural landscape and the marks of human action.
In ruins, scraps, and abandoned fragments, I see elements of a poetic archaeology of the present. What could be read as residue becomes testimony — part of an open-air museum that reveals both the vulnerability of the environment and the persistence of memory. Arctic Trails invites reflection on presence, passage, and transformation in the contemporary era.
Paula Marcondes de Souza | Archival pigment print mounted on acrylic | Greenland 2019
Williamsburg Sessions Series, 2019
Paula Marcondes de Souza | Silver gelatin print on glossy photographic paper | New York, 2019
Singapore Overxposed Series, 2021
The Singapore Overexposed Series is a collection of photographs taken in Singapore in late 2019—shortly before the start of the pandemic—and proposes a reflection on time, memory, and transformation. The images were captured in emblematic neighborhoods such as Tiong Bahru—one of the oldest, known for its juxtaposition of Art Deco architecture and post-war buildings—Chinatown, and the HDBs, the government housing estates.
The ensuing global lockdown interrupted this look at the outside world and shifted my creative process back to painting. Only at the end of the pandemic did I revisit the photographic material and find meaning in presenting it in negative—as if only the inversion of light could reveal the symbolic dimension of loss and change.
In Singapore Overexposed, the negative becomes a metaphor: what was once presence becomes a vestige. The images capture a moment of innocence and openness that no longer exists — a Singapore before the global lockdown — and, at the same time, expose the layers of a world transformed by the collective experience of isolation.Paula Marcondes de Souza | Archival pigment print on glass | Singapore 2019
