Gomma Photography Grant 2024
Thereza
Photographer
Daniela Balestrin
Thereza
17 Jan, 2025
Thereza, a series of cyanotypes initiated in 2023, emerges from the search for one of my ancestors, for nearly forty years, she was known only as “my grandfather’s dead mother.” Her name and story were lost until I found a piece of paper with her name: Thereza. She died at 32 from puerperal fever, her identity reduced to a single sentence. This void inspired my cyanotype series, "Thereza," to visually revive her presence. The images, embracing uncertainty and fluidity, capture her essence through water, reflecting her alive, present, and ever-changing spirit, much like a river that reveals different aspects with each view.
About the photographer
Daniela Balestrin
"Daniela Balestrin was born in Brazil in 1984. Since 2020, she has been developing her work as a multidisciplinary artist, using analog and historical techniques in image creation, as well as writing. In her works, she seeks to approach the events that intertwine with her routine, creating narratives that involve the movements of life and imagination, crossing memory and fiction, image and word. She was selected for the Nova Fotografia 2024 award by the Museum of Image and Sound of the State of São Paulo (Brazil) and is also on the shortlist for the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards in the Professional Creative category. In 2023, she received the Non-Professional Analog Photographer of the Year award from the IPA - International Photography Awards and was a finalist in the Discovery of the Year category at the Lucie Awards. Her work has been exhibited in various group shows around the world and recently had its first solo exhibition at the Museum of Image and Sound of São Paulo (Brazil), featuring the work "Where the Tree Ends and the Rest of the World Begins?«."
