HENRIQUE SCHMEIL
Photographer Henrique Schmeil began his career in photography at the age of 16. From the first moment with a professional camera, he sought to draw attention to global issues and social causes often overlooked by the media.
At the age of 18, Henrique carried out his first 2-year volunteer service in Japan. Upon returning from Asia, aged 20, he began to travel the world. Dropped college, routine and reality. He assumed his talent as a photographer and went to learn from people, landscapes, climates and cultures.
He traveled to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam and Thailand. He listened, wrote and fought for girls who were victims of sex trafficking. On this journey, he created social projects and worked as a photographer to get them off the ground. He has traveled to Tanzania, Ethiopia, Angola, Morocco, Kenya and Namibia to fight female genital mutilation.
"I traveled all over the world and learned that the beauty of the earth is not in the mountains and valleys, but in the people who live in their shadows."
Henrique likes to say that his heart has always been African and when he discovered Kenya, in his first volunteer service in Africa, he fell in love with the continent.
Henrique's work is a reflection of his state of mind and captures details that go unnoticed in the eyes of others, but not in his own. Architecture, life, color combinations and textures are portrayed from a unique perspective. Where the ordinary is found, Henrique discovers an inherent fusion of culture and nature, as natural and pure as the moment he captures. Minimally edited, his work aims to share with the viewer the sensations experienced by the artist at the time of capture.
Today the artist lives at Amazonas, where he is dedicated to circular economy projects with local communities, rescuing medicine and ancestral knowledge, and ensuring that these do not become extinct. In addition to being an entrepreneur and photographer, Henrique produces videos, writes poems, texts and books.
Henrique's photographic identity can be perceived by his ability to adapt to different environments and embrace different cultures.