Teresa Freitas is a 30 year-old photographer living in a village by the sea, in Portugal. She graduated in Multimedia Art and mastered in Design and New Media, only to find out that photography was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Introduce yourself! Who are you, what floats your boat?

I am a relatively shy but curious person that likes reading about others and avoids having to think about who she is. A lot of things bring me joy: food, traveling, painting, looking at art, watching “based-on-a-true-story” films and tv shows, colourful and thoughtful cinematography, flowers, sunny days... but my passion lies in photography and working with colour to make it my own.

What inspires you, what drives your creativity?

The desire of being somewhere else, waiting to be caught by surprise, the right timing, how buildings are painted, what people are wearing, graphic design elements in a city...

What artist living or dead would you like to get a coffee with? What kind of coffee do you think they would drink and why? (ex. cappuccino, black, etc.)

That’s a hard question. Maybe Matisse, discussing (or just hearing him talk about) our beguiling satisfaction of colour and tone. I imagine him drinking a Moroccan spiced coffee, made in his chocolatière, a French chocolate pot that we can find in a lot of his works.

What's the hardest part about being an artist? What's the easiest?

Valuing our worth and understand/define what value is. It took a long time for me to possibly admit that I was an artist and deserved to be called as such. Easiest (or best?) part is getting to play around and call it work.

Why do you love what you do?

Maybe because it comes easy and natural to me. I enjoy many art forms and other industries, but they would be very laborious for me. A camera feels like an extension of who I am, of my arm and hand. And I’ve always been enamored with the idea of capturing something that won’t be the same again.

Do you have any advice for aspiring creatives?

For me, it was about trying different mediums (and subjects) until finding the one that fit right and I acknowledged some talent for. Consume art, a lot, so you can recognize what’s good.

What's next for you?

I'm launching a Patreon page on March 14th, which will mean a new way of creating and sharing content, and interacting with those who want to support my work.

You can view more of Teresa's fabulous work on her Instagram, or website.