Henrique Pontual asks me the impossible: to present his latest work. How can that be? It was only a few years ago that I was warned by my son, Marcantonio Vilaça, about the real strength of artistic photography. And to prove it, he gave me the works of Miguel Rio Branco and Mário Cravo. Before this, actually, already I was seduced by Benício Whatley Dias, Salgado, Edmond Dansot, Robson Maestrelli, Marcos Rodrigues, Pedro Vasquez, Verger, and I managed to form the Funarte Photography Center.

Anyway, what can I say?

I am a long-standing admirer of tasteful Pontual. Everything he does is well done. In fact, it is almost a mark of this Pernambuco family, among which I highlight the prominent pediatrician and humanist Samuel Pontual.

I was impressed with the photos, the maybe-photos, the almost-photos, the pre-photos and post-photos, because that is how I saw the capture of the main object without the loss of the accessories. It says almost without saying, says it all with seemingly little. It is like a clean text, with necessarily minimal adjectivation.

It is good to see within the faces and in the interfaces.

I remembered Drummond talking of tangible things, insensitive to the palm of the hand, of things which ended more than beautiful, things that will stay.

I really enjoyed it. And that's final.

Marcos Vinicios Vilaça – of the Brazilian

Academy of Letters – was President of the National Art Foundation (Funarte).