Portuguese photojournalist Gonçalo Lobo Pinheiro, based in Macau for 14 years, recently launched his new book Close to Me.
The edition is a work carried out for his Masters in New Documentary Photography at LABASAD – School of Arts & Design (Barcelona, Spain) and made for the 2021 edition of 24HourProject – Photographers for Social Change. It is published in an unusual and special wallet format (10.3cm x 7.7cm) and in a limited number of just 150 copies, all numbered and signed by the photographer.
“The initial idea for this project was to capture the morning madness with my children who wake up every day between 6 and 7am, refreshed and ready for another day full of energy. The fact is that, even at bedtime, things are very similar in some aspects, so I ended up mixing the two times of the day, starting at night,” Gonçalo says.
Close to Me was not scheduled to be released this year, but ended up being a “beautiful surprise”, as it is a “very personal” and “very specific” work.
“That’s my family pictured there. My children, my wife. The edition, with black and white photographs, ends up being an author’s work, a niche edition, something very special, starting with the surprising format, in the form of a wallet,” says the photographer.
The choice of the wallet format is easily explained by the photographer.
“This wallet format serves precisely to keep the photos close to me, close to you who buy the book, as well as almost all of us, who carry photos of our dear family members with us in our wallets,” he explains.
Gonçalo also announced that he will have another new book coming out in December, which will be about street photography in Macau and will be published in a style more familiar to those who follow his projects or buy his photographic works.
Close to Me is Gonçalo’s sixth published book and is on sale for MOP150 both on his official website at www.goncalolobopinheiro.com and at the Portuguese Bookshop in Macau.
