João Palla

Drawing Lesson, June 2009 

Drawing and experimental photography – Victor Palla early 50´s 
Keywords: drawing; photography; storyboard; process of work; visual culture 

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to promote the relation between photography and drawing in a very specific moment, early 50´s in Portugal, where Victor Palla was carrying out a program of subjective/experimental photography based on a fully sketched storyboard. Victor Palla (1922-2006) is well known for his later photographic work, however his early period as a photographer was not revealed until now. The intention of this paper is to observe the storyboard and the final pictures, analysing the correspondence between drawing and photography.  Our analysis will reveal new and unpublished information about the artist’s process of work and demonstrate the importance of these storyboard and photographs in the context of Portugal’s history of artwork and also the international influences. The major findings are the development of a relationship between form, essence, and subjective composition which helps unveil a personal artistic language; the spirit of this code initially put into sketches was then legitimated by transferring them into experimental photographs. So, the need to stress the significance of a storyboard in Palla´s photographic process will be made evident since its drawings go over the essence of the final artwork, and enhance its ultimate result revealing a modern aesthetical concern aligned to abstract tendencies of photography as a means to get expressed artistically. We believe that Victor Palla´s contribution helped enrich the Portuguese Visual Culture, by articulating different means of representation and expression, where drawing played a key role. 

CV 

João Palla Martins

IADE, UNIDCOM, Lisbon, Portugal
[email protected] 

João Palla, (Lisbon, 1971) Graduate in Architecture by the Architecture faculty of Lisbon FAUTL1995 .
Collaboration with architect Manuel Vicente from 1990 to 1997 in Macau and Lisbon. Research thesis, Grant from Orient Foundation, to research “Bamboo architecture in Macau”, 1999.
Founded Scriptorium arquitects firm with arch. Carlos Valles, Lisbon, 2000. Member of Architects Without Borders Association –ASF Portugal.
Master of Design and Visual Culture at IADE, 2006.
Writing PhD dissertation thesis on drawing as an interdisciplinary process FBAUL.
Teaching at IADE Design School since 1999.