MARIA LEITE
I graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2002, I pursued a Post-Bachelor's degree in Communication and Image from Pontificia Universidade Catholica do Rio de Janeiro. After over 10 years working in the field of set design for theater productions and as a set design teacher, in 2005 I moved to the United States. I completed a Master's degree in Exceptional Student Education, a Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Diversity Studies from the University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida. I am currently interested in qualitative research methods involving photographic inquiry and other methods to record visual data.
But, Where Does It Come From?
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I have always been intrigued by the power of photography. During my early childhood, my father was flirting very seriously with photography. I remember having hundreds of black and white photos taken by him at different stages of my early years.
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Later in life, I would play with his manual camera and filters and discover a whole new world. I've experimented different lights, speeds, and many effects that worked and those that didn't. Inevitably, I got into the age of digital photo and since then, I have been playing amateur photographer. This portfolio shows some results of this naive practice.
Photo: @cafecomlens - Luana Souza