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Helder Sousa is all the time striving to seize that particular second the world misses.
The Fall River resident discovered a knack for pictures and storytelling a couple of decade in the past, after he started experimenting with a Canon T5i digital camera as a passion to maintain his thoughts occupied and keep away from despair when his marriage collapsed.
“I need a creative outlet and that afforded me my creative outlet,” Sousa stated. “And now I love it.”
Although found accidentally, that keenness quickly grew to become a function: documenting folks residing within the second and capturing genuinely and superbly their spontaneity and uncooked emotion.
“It’s all about telling that story,” stated the award-winning freelance photographer. “I’m a street photographer. I am always looking for moments so I can create a photo in my head. It’s almost like I have a laser and I see things.”
With a eager eye for element, Sousa honed his pure intuition to create distinctive views.
“I have a little hint of ADD. So, when you have ADD and you love something, you get hyper-focused,” he stated. “I became hyper-focused with photography.”
Sousa enjoys photographing essence of Portuguese tradition
Sousa shortly developed a particular curiosity in photographing Portuguese tradition, aiming his lenses to seize occasions, wealthy and various customs and traditions or private facets of life, from intimate moments to vibrant, public shows.
“I’m very proud of my culture,” stated the son of immigrants hailing from Furnas and Arrifes, São Miguel, Azores. “I’m not so particularly proud of our history, you know, because we’ve got a pretty dark history, but our culture’s strong and I’m very attached to it. I want to capture 100 percent of my culture.”
Sousa has captured the Romeiros — the pilgrims who stroll from church to church throughout Lent to hope for divine intervention — like few have. His pictures strikingly spotlight their uncooked, intimate moments of religion, endurance, and religious connection.
Sousa recalled how he attained a few of his most charming photographs of the Romeiros.
“I met them at the second to the last church because I knew they were going to be exhausted and would have that specific look I was searching for,” he stated. “They’re tired, but it’s more about the passion. Now imagine me going to the first church they were at, holding coffees, smiling, all that. It wouldn’t have the same effect. I like to evoke emotion and provoke emotion in the beholder.”
He stated considered one of his favourite pictures he has ever taken reveals a Romeiro smoking a cigarette.
“Because to me, that screams Portuguese,” he defined. “He looks like a guy that worked construction. His skin, you know, is like leather. He’s standing there, you know, with his barba [beard] and everything… and he’s smoking a cigarette. That to me screams an older Portuguese gentleman.”
‘I like capturing the individual of their pure factor’
Self-taught, Sousa defines his pictures model as “contrasty, almost three-dimensional.”
“I want you to be able to want to reach out and touch that person,” he stated. “I like capturing the person in their natural element.”
His portfolio not solely contains tons of private candid pictures but in addition vibrant photographs of many festas and occasions just like the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the Day of Portugal celebrations, the Boston Portuguese Festival and the International Portuguese Music Awards.
About six years in the past, he determined to give up his outdoors gross sales job at a masonry product firm and change into a full-time photographer.
“I was burning the candle at both ends,” he stated. “During COVID, I started seeing how people were just about their money and everybody’s health was on the wayside. … I could be making a mistake, but at least I had control of my own life and my finances.”
He now owns Sousa Image Works on Cambridge Street in Fall River.
“Video is big now; I get it. But to me photography is still a superior medium because it freezes that moment,” Sousa stated. “You don’t have to rewind it; you don’t have to pause it. It freezes that instant … it’s so storytelling.”
His studio focuses on capturing genuine moments, weddings, portraits, and native occasions.
Sousa has labored on a wide range of business initiatives and photographed skilled athletes and artists, avenue scenes, nature and rather more.
“I’m trying to kind of create a niche, where that way you have no other choice but to hire me,” he stated. “I just want to thank the community because they’ve helped me out a lot.”
Sousa’s pictures bucket listing
Sousa stated there are a number of locations he wish to go to and a group of experiences and tales he would like to seize and freeze feelings in time.
“This is kind of crazy in a way, but I would love to be in a war-torn country,” stated Sousa, who describes himself as a historical past buff. “But obviously, I don’t want to die, right? Because that’s where the story’s at.”
He revealed he would additionally love embarking on a journey with a digital camera in hand in North Korea.
“But that’s not tangible,” he shortly admitted. “But one that’s on my list that I really want to go to, and I hope in the near future I can, is Cuba.”
Sousa acknowledged being drawn to Cuba’s distinctive frozen-in-time environment; vibrant, pastel-colored, crumbling colonial structure; Nineteen Fifties and Sixties vehicles; and “Frankenstein” autos.
He would additionally like to {photograph} Russia’s structure and folks.
“Russian people have this scowl on their face,” he stated. “I know it’s probably a stereotype of them, but they look angry. And it tells you the story of how they live, you know, being under the thumb of a dictator. And I’d want to go in the winter … that’s what I’d want to do.”
Sousa considers exhibiting his work
Sousa was just lately invited to show his work publicly.
“I’ve had somebody reach out to me,” Sousa stated. “They would like to sponsor me, and I’ve thought of doing it. Maybe in the next month, I might know a little more about it.”
Although the thought of sharing his imaginative and prescient and pictures with folks thrills him, he stated it must be a distinct type of exhibition. He stated he would like to produce other artwork items on show and possibly ask some artists to create one thing based mostly on his work, for instance, an azulejo panel with considered one of his pictures.
“Because let’s be honest, art shows are good, but you have to like art,” he stated. “I want people to go there and have an experience.”
Although he wouldn’t thoughts displaying his work in public areas, that’s not what he aspires essentially the most.
“My dream is to have my images hanging on strangers’ walls,” he stated. “That’s what I truly want. I just want people to enjoy my work.”
For extra details about Sousa and his pictures, go to or contact [email protected]
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https://www.heraldnews.com/story/news/local/ojornal/2026/03/12/fall-river-photographer-helder-sousa-captures-portuguese-culture/88988863007/
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