A Portuguese photographer and a professional bodyboarder teamed up to raise awareness about ocean sustainability and marine pollution.
“She is Home” is a photographic project by Micael Veras dos Santos featuring multiple-time European and world bodyboarding champion, Joana Schenker.
“Generally speaking, photographic campaigns that raise awareness against ocean pollution tend to focus on marine animals living in their habitat,” explains Veras dos Santos.
“However, sometimes, it is far more effective to raise awareness through identification. So, it makes sense to have someone who makes the sea her home and who also suffers the consequences of negative actions.”
Joana Schenker is one of the most successful professional bodyboarders of all time. She has collected six national titles, four European trophies, and a world title.
She was born, grew up, and lives in Sagres, on one of the last borders of beautiful Portugal. Schenker made Sagres her home, with its walls of waves and sand.
Whether it’s a beautiful sunny day or a cold winter morning, the athlete spends much of her time on the beach where she enjoys her best moments.
The Sea, Her Home
The unpredictability of swells and winds made her fall in love with the mysteries that the horizon and the future bring.
Joana Schenker wants to live and breathe the sea, but she is also conscious of protecting, loving, and treating it as her home.
At the end of the day, Joana’s foundations will always be the sea, the wind, and the sand.
When she is at the beach, she is at home. Joana takes care because Joana loves it.
“And from this premise comes the idea of rescuing ‘Joana’s house,’ which is, after all, the home of all marine life and ultimately the home of all of us,” adds the photographer.
A Visual Stimulus
With “She is Home,” Veras dos Santos wants the visual stimulus to transform into palpable actions and saving the world’s oceans.
The photographic essay’s ultimate goal is to make people realize that they need to change their habits and act now. The pictures feature Schenker surrounded by plastics and ghost nets.
“There’s a sad reality inherent to what is happening in our oceans and how urgent it is to come together to save it,” concludes Micael.
Micael Veras dos Santos is a Portuguese photographer who is currently living and working in Brussels, Belgium.
Recently, he won Canon’s “Young Talent 2020” award. Mica, as he is also known, is passionate about adventure, travel, and billboards.
He shoots to bring a simplistic perspective of Nature to the general public and portray the most beautiful things we have in the world.
His eternal hope is that people will fall in love and take care.
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