JONATHAN CHERRY: What gets you up in the morning?

JOAO CRUZ: The thoughts about the projects that I’m working on or something that is happening that day.

JC: Are there any emerging photographers inspiring you at the moment?

JC: I have to say that some of them are about my age and live in the same city as I do, they are not those who inspire me but they’re certainly influential. It is important to see what people that live in the same environment and are about your age are doing. Besides that there are some photographers whose work I’ve been watching and I like very much like

Mark Peckmezian, Steven Beckly, Tim Barber, Antony Crook, J Bennet Fitts, Salva López and others that I can’t remember right now

JC: What is your current project all about?

JC: Right now I’m organizing my portfolio and doing a lot of research about certain themes that interest me. My degree’s final project is coming up and I have to decide what I’m going to do.

JC: What draws you to making portraits?

JC: The relationship that I have with the person I photograph and what I can get out of that particular situation. Most of the time when I go back to the portraits that I took, I always find out something that I thought didn’t happen when I took the photo, like a particular expression or atmosphere etc.

JC: How do you find juggling personal & commercial work?

JC: If you want to make a living out of photography I guess one way would be commercial work. But I think you can never only shoot commercial, one always has their personal projects in mind. I also think that in the end both personal and commercial end up mixing, which is great.

JC: Any advice to recent photography graduates?

JC: Photograph a lot, don’t give a break to photography.

JC: Favourite tree?

JC: Oak Tree