Rodrigo Oliveira

Born in a small coastal community 60km from Rio de Janeiro’s city Centre, I moved out of home at the age of 19 to study Biological Sciences at a Rural University in the State of Rio de Janeiro. At the end of my second year of university I was awarded with a year and a half scholarship to study part of my degree in Melbourne, Australia, a life changing opportunity.
As a young inexperienced boy coming from an underprivileged family, the all included exchange study opened doors to dreams I thought would never become a reality. Lucky to have learnt both English and Photography by my own, I was able to explore and document a part of the world that has always captivated me: Australia and Southeast Asia.
Nothing had ever made me so proud of myself as looking at the photographs I’ve taken, specially those that can make me feel like I am connecting to my subjects or telling a story and most importantly that those photographs evoke a type of sentiment in me, because then I know that it has power to intrigue its viewers and catch their attention.
Photography forces me directly and indirectly to do what I love the most: interacting with people, and that makes me feel complete, much like love. I consider my intentions with photography to be genuinely pure: I try to show the best of people and nature in the hope to bring awareness to preserve both culture and environment. My message is to show a world full of hope, passion, beauty, joy and love in its most simple and natural way.