Present in Brazilian press since 1995, Leo Martins’ caricatures transpose the obvious similarity with a careful subjective study on the physical and psychological individuality of the character, illustrated with graphic accuracy and aesthetic sophistication that serve as their background: his drawings recalling the elegant lineage of masters J. Carlos, Nássara, Luís Trimano and Cássio Loredano embellished pages and covers of several of the most prestigious publications in his country, but it was also the technical limitations imposed by extensive contribution with late news websites 'NO.' and 'No Mínimo' that helped define the synthesis he applied as a seven-year co-author of the now extinct 'Sinais Particulares' column on page 2 of 'O Estado de S. Paulo' newspaper, his most remarkable long-term collaboration to date.
Embracing a parallel career seemed like a natural evolving step at some point of his visual quest, thus since 2008 he splits his time between two historically concurrent mediae that found their complementary importance in his work: hired as staff photographer by notorious 'O Globo' newspaper in Rio de Janeiro, it does not come as a surprise that portraiture is what seduces him the most – it’s where the two art forms come closest and profit from the same vision and critic sense. As much as it happens with the false economy shown in his caricatures of arts, sports, politics and media characters in general, Leo Martins’ editorial photographs evidentiate the cleanliness, objectivity and subtleness that punctuate his whole production. His images are stripped of all unnecessary information in favor of what is essential to the precisely balanced visual and conceptual contents.
