Fábio Cunha

In order to reflect on the way we live now, Fábio Cunha returned to the rural area in the north of Portugal where he lived until the age of 15. His photographic series underlines a way of life that many societies have abandoned, one in which there is an immediate connection to nature, with people directly dependent on its rhythms. The work’s meaning surfaces when the main action – the killing of a pig – fades from the foreground, and the emphasis shifts to ideas about touch, closeness, strength and collectivism. In an era of massive production and huge levels of consumption,

how these people use their hands is shown as an act of resistance to a world that craves the new and easily accessible. We Still Kill Pigs with Our Hands is a bittersweet portrait of a familiar tradition, photographed not as a physical process, but as a symbolic one. It is a personal diagnosis that raises an important question: Hypnotized by new technologies, what are we missing? What actions are we still capable of carrying out together?

Fábio Cunha develops a practice between photography and installation. He has a degree in architecture from Porto´s University (FAUP) and holds a master’s degree in photography from Centro Internacional de Fotografia (EFTI), Madrid. Fábio exhibited his work in different photography festivals and La Kursala gallery, Spain. He published ZONA – An Investigation Report, a photobook that won DOCfield Dummy Award (Barcelona) supported by Fundació Banc Sabadell and was selected by PhotoEspaña as one of the best photobooks of 2017.  His work is part of Fundació Banc Sabadell and Universidad de Cádiz private collections.  Since 2017 he has been teaching at ETIC (Technical School of Image and Communication, Lisbon) and Atelier de Lisboa (Photography School and Centre for the Visual Arts).