Progressive Street

  “Sometimes I think that when a street scene seduces us it’s because, in some way, we see ourselves in it

and the story – if it exists – is sometimes, on this side of the lens.”

I don't consider myself a photographer and don't have a hunter's instinct when I go out with my camera I´m a full-time dad disguised as an office employee with a passion for small daily stories. I work in Oporto's downtown, on a seventh floor with an excellent view over the city, although now the skyline seems strange to me with a tangle of cranes and machines that seems to have a life of their own.

I was born in Maputo, Mozambique, in the early 70s, but I can't say I come from there. After my parents’ divorce, we returned to my mother's homeland, Viana, in the north of Portugal, just two years before the "red carnation revolution" restored democracy in Portugal and Mozambique became a free country. I was raised there, with some difficulties by my mother, who did her best to educate two children almost alone. Life flows like the scenes that our camera captures when we take a walk along the streets of a city with its little stories and dramas that catch our attention and are kept in our memory.

Photography came into my life accidentally, just over three years ago. When I accessed the virtual world, I found myself included in street photography groups, where I was dazzled by the work of photographers who captured and froze daily scenes and their protagonists: real people in the streets. I started by taking street photography during short holidays in cities where I was a foreigner and, therefore, invisible and protected. At such times I like to lose myself and it is in these moments that we, sometimes, face episodes that touch us deeply due to their humanity, and make us feel empathy for someone we just met. Gradually I was seduced by a world of short stories that happened in front of me and I still remember my enthusiasm when, following the work of friends, I discovered a reality that could be also coloured, layered and full of reflections.

Sometimes I think that when a street scene seduces us it’s because, in some way, we see ourselves in it and the story - if it exists – is, sometimes, on this side of the lens.

2024

Group Exhibitions