TUTTAN started as a photographic project between me, Bruno Santos, Luciana Tavares and Rodrigo Nick, my friends from Curitiba, Brazil. In 2018, me and Bruno, who is also a photographer, had already photographed Luciana for other reasons, as a model or shooting portraits. When we first met her, both of us were amazed by her personality and her stunning beauty. We got to know her better, more and more, then we also met her husband, Rodrigo. Soon after, baby Don Lion came to give us an extra joy.
The TUTTAN family: Rodrigo Nick, Luciana Tavares and Don Lion.
We had some mind blowing meetings, exchanging learnings and a lot of ideas. The four of us had a connection with one word: change. Everyone was aware that we were experiencing an awakening. Awaken for so many things… We realized that together, one by one, we could begin to transform the world we live in. This project symbolizes a collective of people looking for a better world, with more respect, equality and love.
The four of us decided to elaborate the project to do this manifest. We set aside to plan how the shooting was going to be and Rodrigo introduced us the whole concept about TUTTAN. The name was inspired by Tutankhamen, who was a young king in ancient Egypt. In studies about spirituality and Egypt, Rodrigo was delighted when he discovered more about King Tut and his family. He found out that they were one of the first families to make a record of members for remembrance. More than three thousand years ago, an amazing, rich, intelligent and involved black family with royal blood, was concerned with recording what was happening in their family at the time. That story made him reflect and with the name TUTTAN, he decided to honor and recognize them. As Rodrigo himself said: "Today, thousand years after this incredible story, we speak out for love: we will resist, for our family, we fight for our son”.
The shootings days
Once defined the concept and the massage we wanted to send, we decided to plan the first part: the shooting. We spent all day sharing ideias, Bruno and I wanted to shoot them as a family, making a portrait session and showing all their affection, love and strength - and of course their beauty. We photographed the couple and their beautiful son, Don Lion, who was 8 month's at the time. We were at the studio all day, creating three different compositions and feelings in our pictures. Marina Costa collaborated with make up and styling was made by the four of us - Luciana and Rodrigo came with a bag of clothes with some options and we chose all together. We call these series “Portraits of Affection”.
These black and white series were shot by me and Bruno with natural light coming from the window. All the moments we shot were real and natural, they were playing with each other and interacting with Don. There are pictures that them were not even seeing that we were photographing. We didn't take the camera off our shoulders that day, so we wouldn't miss a good scene. It's a nice experience to shoot with another photographer, since Bruno and I have different perspectives, we kind of complemented our visions. And of course we were always helping each other, with the objects, holding the reflector, and getting into an agreement when choosing the light. It was incredible to exchange our knowledge and to learn so much with this photography experience. We created this duo photography project at the time, “Auta Photography”, where we worked together a few times.
After this first shooting, we took a break, had an amazing lunch and we changed the styling and makeup. While that was happening, Bruno and I started to test the studio light. We also changed the background to black. This second series were shot with a fashion and strong feeling, we elaborated the poses and directed their positions.
And then suddenly Don was hungry and Luciana was with him, standing up in the middle of the studio, she just had to look at us with her amazing model expression and we shot this picture, which for me represents the impressive and strong woman that Luciana is.
The third part of this day was about the first portraits of this post and those ones below. We used a warm and diffused light, with the intention of getting a dramatic and artistic look. We even felt after seeing the photos that they were like a painting.
I have photographed this couple twice and it's really beautiful to see how they treat each other, we can feel their love by just looking at them. The day was incredible, at the end we were really exhausted after 12 hours of production, but proud of ourselves for the result.
Check out how was this amazing shooting day, watch this making of video recorded and edited by Ezy:
After some weeks we had another meeting to check the result together. The conversation went very well, we had a lot of fun and then we thought about doing another shooting session, this time surrounded by nature. In that same night we decided that in the next day we would go to waterfall near Curitiba. We got up early on Sunday and the first clicks came with the sunrise and the presence of the moon. A beautiful light and family. We spent the day together, with a lot of talks, photos, really cold dives, music and even a yoga session.
TUTTAN, Portraits of Affection: the exhibition
So, after that amazing day in nature, Bruno and I checked the whole material together and we thought that those family portraits should be seen in a special way - Luciana and Rodrigo had and still have to be heard and seen by lots of people. So then we planned the exhibition event, “TUTTAN - Portraits of Affection”.
The exhibition day was such a special day. Since morning, all of us were in the location - TAU - the co-working, studio and store we shared for a year with other creatives. We took hours to prepare everything, the space, the pictures on the wall, we had the food done by ourselves (vegan!), we had a Dj, we had the support of Stella Artois - thanks God, it was such a hot day - and the sunlight also made presence.
At one point, we asked for everybody's attention and we started to explain to everybody present what the project is, how it began, how we planned everything and what is our goal. Tuttan’s purpose is to create a reflection on people’s mind. What do you really value? Do you have empathy for the ones around you? Do you accept others as they are? What are you doing to make the world better? We think that everyone can be the light, even in the darkness. Your example can be followed. Each one of us have the power and the choice to be the seed of change. Be the spark in the dark.
We received that day a lot of friends, people from the city, our family and friends. We didn't stop for a minute, talking to everybody and explaining our purpose. My friend, Bruna Bomfim, registered some moments:
The day was filled of smiles, we received an amazing feedback. People asked about the project, the pictures, they really supported the movement and also loved the food! Luciana and Rodrigo took a large album that they had - and now it's a family album - we glued some pictures and each person present could write a special message for them. Bruno and I gave the photos for the family as a gift and some of them were bought by guests who were at the event. Thank you for supporting and having our pictures in your homes. At the end, when everybody already had left, we stayed all together, Rodrigo sang his music while Bruno played the guitar, and we felt that the work had been done, we were fulled of satisfaction, happiness and feeling really accomplished.
So.. what happened next?
3 months later, I was moving to Europe to start a new life. I was very sad to leave this project behind, but I am also glad that we could at least execute one edition (I am sure there's more to come in the future!). TUTTAN resulted in so many good things that makes me so happy. Luciana, who is a model and a photographer, with her husband Rodrigo, who is also a musician, created the TUTTAN agency, the first agency in Curitiba to have only black models. Check their profile here: TUTTAN Agency.
Luciana Tavares personal profile and photography profile.
Rodrigo Nick personal profile, Youtube channel and Spotify profile.
They have an amazing material to show, photos of them and their models, their routine, videos and interviews about the Tuttan movement and how everything works at the agency and of course, pictures of the cutie Don Lion.
I’m here, so distant from you, but really happy to see your achievements and growth, I want to even by distance support you in any way I can. You are incredible people that have a huge representation and that inspire so many others. You deserve to be seen and heard, you are great and everybody needs to see that. So I hope we all continue to pursue the change together and don’t stop ever to go further. We will be always trying to introduce the language of love and respect.
A big thanks to everyone that was there personally and supporting us, as well as the many professionals that collaborated together. You are in my heart! Thank you, Bruno, for being my photography partner and for teaching me so much, thank you Tuttan Family for just being you, I admire you as a person, as a family, as people that are resisting, each day stronger, truly doing their part to see a better world. It's just the beginning!
Sending good energies for you.
With love, RW