About — Peryvo Studio
Two people, one darkroom, no rush.
Mara’s Leica M6 — bought second-hand in 2009, still on its first shutter
01 — Story
We started with one camera and a borrowed enlarger.
Mara spent her twenties as a newspaper photographer in Porto, filing twelve pictures a day and keeping none of them. Peryvo began in 2014 as the opposite: fewer stories, more time, and every frame on film.
Jonah joined in 2017 after we met on a fishing boat off the Algarve — he was shooting a documentary, we were in his way. Today we take on around eight commissions a year, from editorial series to private family archives.
Everything is developed and printed in our own darkroom on Rua das Flores, which is also where most of our clients end up drinking coffee.
02 — What we hold on to
Four rules we don’t bend.
01A
Patience
We budget days for doing nothing. Trust takes longer than light, and it shows in every frame.
02A
Consent
Everyone we photograph knows who we are and where the pictures will go. No exceptions, no long lenses.
03A
Craft
Film, chemistry and fibre paper. Slower and more expensive — and the only way we know to make prints that last.
04A
Honest captions
Every picture leaves the studio with a name, a place and a date. If we can’t caption it truthfully, we don’t publish it.
03 — Team
The people behind the roll.
Mara Ellison
Founder & photographer
Jonah Brecht
Cinematographer
Lena Okafor
Producer
Theo Adeyemi
Darkroom printer
04 — In the bag
Everything fits in one bag.
Leica M6 (1986), Leica M4-P, Hasselblad 500C/M
35 mm Summicron, 50 mm Summilux, 80 mm Planar
Bolex H16 Reflex on 16 mm black-and-white reversal
Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford HP5 Plus, Kodak Double-X
Durst Laborator 1200, Ilford Multigrade fibre paper