3rd place
bronze star award
Betina Samaia
brazil 
Photo © Betina Samaia
title
Through the Mirror
Inside the forest, alive and present, there is much more than the waking human eye can conceive.
Amidst the dense vegetation, unexpected mirrors open paths to other dimensions, revealing trails unknown until then. A forest appears within a forest, within another, and another - proliferating a landscape that points towards an unknown infinity. The image is endless. The forest finds itself between frames, but also escapes to other places that can be visited through dreams. The forest, as reflections, thus expands.
Enlightened beings, human bodies of undefined contours - faceless anthropomorphic figures of which we can only witness the silhouette - contemplate and wonder in search of the source of water. The waterfall is framed by the transparent geometry of the delicate glass in which the water passes through, without shattering. The river of rounded stones also enters through the mirror, which then reflects with water.
We contemplate the landscape and the landscape contemplates us. The image within the image turns against and towards us; the forest imposes itself as our own reflection and destiny. Then, barriers between bodies and nature dissolve; and, through sight, we become a part of it.
With series named Choreography of Chaos, Nocturnals, Amazon-The Green’s End, , India- Memories of What I Have Never Seen, Africa, Through the Mirror, Forests from The Imaginary among others, she has participated in several solo and group exhibits in Brazil, France and the United States.
Over the past decade, her photo essays have been featured in the Carrousel du Louvre (Paris), Espace des Arts Sans Frontières (Paris), La Quatrième Image (Paris), Magic Brésil (Paris), Le Magazyn (California), Nacional Historical Museum (Rio de Janeiro), Paraty em Foco (Rio de Janeiro), Museum of Image and Sound (Sao Paulo), Art 57 Gallery (Sao Paulo) and Valu Oria Gallery (Sao Paulo).
Betina is author of the books Amazon -The Green’s End (Edition Bessard, 2021), Multiverso – Quarentena Books 2 (IpsisPub, 2021), Out into the Night (Madalena Publisher, 2017), and Blue (Madalena Publisher, 2015).
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entry description
Only Yanomami shamans can see the spirits that dance in the forest on massive mirrors that cascade from the sky.Inside the forest, alive and present, there is much more than the waking human eye can conceive.
Amidst the dense vegetation, unexpected mirrors open paths to other dimensions, revealing trails unknown until then. A forest appears within a forest, within another, and another - proliferating a landscape that points towards an unknown infinity. The image is endless. The forest finds itself between frames, but also escapes to other places that can be visited through dreams. The forest, as reflections, thus expands.
Enlightened beings, human bodies of undefined contours - faceless anthropomorphic figures of which we can only witness the silhouette - contemplate and wonder in search of the source of water. The waterfall is framed by the transparent geometry of the delicate glass in which the water passes through, without shattering. The river of rounded stones also enters through the mirror, which then reflects with water.
We contemplate the landscape and the landscape contemplates us. The image within the image turns against and towards us; the forest imposes itself as our own reflection and destiny. Then, barriers between bodies and nature dissolve; and, through sight, we become a part of it.
about the photographer
Betina Samaia is a Brazilian photographer. Born in São Paulo (SP), in 1964, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo) and seeks to register images from the unconscious by traveling, freely moving between past and present, reality and imagination.With series named Choreography of Chaos, Nocturnals, Amazon-The Green’s End, , India- Memories of What I Have Never Seen, Africa, Through the Mirror, Forests from The Imaginary among others, she has participated in several solo and group exhibits in Brazil, France and the United States.
Over the past decade, her photo essays have been featured in the Carrousel du Louvre (Paris), Espace des Arts Sans Frontières (Paris), La Quatrième Image (Paris), Magic Brésil (Paris), Le Magazyn (California), Nacional Historical Museum (Rio de Janeiro), Paraty em Foco (Rio de Janeiro), Museum of Image and Sound (Sao Paulo), Art 57 Gallery (Sao Paulo) and Valu Oria Gallery (Sao Paulo).
Betina is author of the books Amazon -The Green’s End (Edition Bessard, 2021), Multiverso – Quarentena Books 2 (IpsisPub, 2021), Out into the Night (Madalena Publisher, 2017), and Blue (Madalena Publisher, 2015).
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