Hi everybody, I have decided to, in addition to posting images, write a bit about the creative process, and the forces behind making art, in the context I live.
First I would like to talk a little about my background, and how I came to be what I am now.
In 1997, I entered the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, as an undergraduate student, pursuing a career in Biological Sciences, in the medical research field. My main goal was to understand the details of life in its most simple organizations, its auto-regulatory systems, its nuances. After two years studying Biochemistry, Biophysics, and a handful of other disciplines I decided to take a break. I bought an air ticket to New York and soon after, I was thousands of miles away from everything I knew. So far away from home, I wanted to make sure I kept records of this journey. I bought a 35 mm camera, and started a journal, which I forced myself to write. The photographs kept happening through this journey, with way more frequency than the writings, of course. I was fascinated by my new medium. No more petri dishes, no more microscopes. Life-size life, very immediate, in my face, and a camera. After six months between New York and Boston, I bought a ticket to London, and soon after, I went in my Europe journey. At this point, I knew that I had found a new direction, I started to take photography as a real possibility, a career, a "modus vivendi". I spent 7 months traveling in Europe, and planning how I would make this transition. I had to go back to school, only this time, to study in depth my new beloved discipline. I was on my way back to Rio, when I decided to stop in Boston for a few days.
later I moved to Saint Louis and was immersed in philosophical and aesthetic studies and experimented with photography in addition to many other media, such as digital video, sculpture and written word. In 2002 I transferred to the Photography and Cinema Department at the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where I followed studies into the aesthetics of the moving image. I had had quite a few shows in Saint Louis, and won an award from the "Saint Louis Artists' Guild" in the show "Savvy"-Influence of Media in Contemporary Society.

Leonardo Oliveira is a multi-media artist currently working with poetry, video, installation and photography.
Born in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, where he pursued a degree in Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Rio De Janeiro, he later moved to New York where he experimented with photography both as a tool of documentation and personal expression. After spending time in New York, he moved to London and travelled around Europe photographing and writing extensively. Back to the US, Leonardo Oliveira is currently pursuing a BFA in the Photography and Cinema Department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Leonardo Oliveira. Copyrights 2004. All rights reserved.