A Forgotten Document: The photographic life of Horácio Novais (1910-1988)

A FORGOTTEN DOCUMENT. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC LIFE OF HORﾃ，IO NOVAIS (1910-1988)

NUNO PERESTRELO CHORﾃグ

Mittuniversitetet Mid-Sweden University

Sundsvall, january 2013

With a precious help from: Art Library of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

The author Nuno Perestrelo Chorﾃ｣o is a master student from the first class of the Photojournalism international program that recently started at the Sweden School of Photojournalism at Sundsvall, Sweden. Besides that, he has worked as photographer and also as journalist. Between 2006 and 2010, he took a degree in Communication and Journalism Studies at UBI (Universidade da Beira Interior), at Covilhﾃ｣, Portugal. He has also been engaged for one year as Erasmus student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), in Barcelona.

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Abstract Horåcio Novais (1910-1988) was an important Portuguese photographer of the 20th century, with an immense variety of subjects and covering with his images 60 years of the country’s history, specially during the dictatorship period (1926-1974). His name and vast photo archive are, however, forgotten by cultural and scientific circumstances which are not clear even for those who study the history of Portuguese photography. This research provides exclusive unseen elements for an overview of his photographic career.

Keywords: Photography, History, Portugal, Documentary, 20th Century

CHAPTERS INTRODUCTION

# Writing on a blank page # A mysterious box # A glimpse of the early beginnings # Portugal 1910-1933: Times of constant change in a young mind # The press and the exhibitions in the 30's # Spirit: A renewed political concept # The documented industry: A businessman # Home sweet home: A lover of Lisbon # The traveler: an international dimension # CONCLUSION: ONE OF MANY # REFERENCES & SOURCES # VISUAL APPENDIX

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Introduction WRITING ON A BLANK PAGE

In the year the Portuguese Republic was born, 1910, someone special that would use cameras was born too. Framed on his time, Horácio [de Sousa] Novais became one of the major names of portuguese photography. He was specially active and popular during the 1930’s and 1940‘s. But some of his pictures are today in books and records without his name.

Like his brother Mário, Horácio did a lot of assignments for official institutions from the regime led by Oliveira Salazar. But not only that. He had his own studio. He was a reporter.

He portrayed consistently Lisbon and the urban life. He did advertising. He was part of cinema crews. He did artistic nudes and portraits of famous people. He photographed a lot of flowers and won contests. He has been the correspondent of a republican spanish newspaper and won a honourable mention from Hungary. He photographed the powerful portuguese industrial companies that do not exist anymore. Today, however, we do not lie if we argue that he is unknown, either inside or outside Portugal. Why is that?

Hard question. In fact, there is almost no consistent information about the history of portuguese photography in general. Only a few scholars and independent researchers have actually written something about it in the past, or write about it nowadays. The reasons and circumstances for that lack of information and studies seem not to be clear for anyone.

Against what he calls a typical “Portuguese ingratitude of not paying attention even to what is happening on the side” (A. Sena, 1991), and after a preliminary version 1, António Sena dared to publish in 1998 the first book that was covering specifically and with exhaustion that

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concrete part of the vast portuguese history. It is an unique and valuable body of work, considered a relic by everyone who studies photography on this country. But in spite of Sena’s immense contribution to document a ghost field of study, that same book is not being sold anymore. Sena wrote about his first (smaller) book released in 1991: “Oddly enough, it was actually the first panoramic on photography in Portugal from its beginnings to the present. The conditions and repercussions of photography for more than a century and a half are too strange”.2 (Sena, A. 1998)

Back in that year, the same author justifies how unique it was what he, himself, was attempting to do, giving just a few exceptions like an article published in the 40’s about the birth of photography in the country.

“In Portugal, the photographic research is practically nil. It’s limited to the publication of some articles in newspapers or magazines, dispersed communications without the support of any systematic bibliographic level or of authors and works” 3. (Sena. A. 1991)

Emília Tavares writes about the history of portuguese photography. More recently, she was the author of the whole chapter included in The History of European Photography 1900-19384 dedicated to the history portuguese photographers of that period. Like Sena, she also complains about the same problems. In 2005, Tavares was the main responsible for resurrecting with a big exhibition and book the name of Joshua Benoliel (1873-1932), considered by many a pioneer of portuguese photojournalism, whose camera witnessed the monarchy, the fall of the kings, the birth of the republic, the rise of a long dictatorship, the pulse of the country in the late 19th century to the early decades of the 20th century. In one of the introductory texts, Tavares wrote:

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(…) in Portugal there is still an ageless ineffectiveness regarding the articulation of the photographic estate (and others), falsely protected under the aura of relics, accessible only to a few, when in fact the conditions, of consultation or conservation, in which this estate is kept often compromises its preservation.

The monopoly and transfer of egos for the performance of the institutions has been and will remain the main hindrance to the cultural and artistic development of this country. The concept of scientific responsibility is completely ignored in the study of Visual Arts in Portugal, most particularly in the study of Photography, a significant fact of the crude path taken by the "history of history" of this typology, and the overrating to the its media effects. (Tavares, E. 2005)

A MYSTERIOUS BOX

After the death of Horácio in 1988, an extensive and very comprehensive photographic archive was left on his studio. In spite of his assistants kept on working still under the name “Estúdio Horácio Novais”, the studio was not the same anymore and his main character was gone. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a private institution that has played (nearly since the moment it was created) a fundamental role in the portuguese cultural, educational, artistic and scientific affairs, decided to buy the whole studio ten years later, between 1997 and 1998. Today, it can be found on the Art Library of the institution.

The main reason for that acquisition has been the fact that Gulbenkian, back in 1985, also bought in similar circumstances Mário Novais’ studio archive, composed by 80.309 photographic documents 5. Since 2006, documents and more theoretical information from him and that studio are under deep analysis. Afterwards, the turn of Horácio will come.

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With two people working almost exclusively on curating his collection, even bigger than Mario’s, the main priority has been, first of all, to conserve and catalogue all the photographic species that have been found inside 2106 little boxes (like the ones on the first page) without any date or any kind of logical numeration. Horácio (like Mário) had his own documents from many different things, which had not been analysed, some barely touched; until now.

This research opened the door to remove some of the dust from one of the boxes where those documents have been saved since 1997/98. And they are extremely important since the lack of information about Horácio Novais personal life and work is still enormous, and that is, indeed, one of many reasons why more research on portuguese photography in general is absolutely needed. In general terms, it’s not only a run against time if we think in issues like the preservation of fragile photographs and documents, but also a necessary rescue if we think about the number of forgotten portuguese photographers that nobody studied yet and, many of them, still hidden no one knows exactly either where or in what conditions. But once we open the box and start to unveil mysteries, what we can find it’s absolutely incredible.

Ironical is, nonetheless, what one of the assistants from the studio of Mário Novais told to a newspaper in 1987 about the acquisition of Mário Novais’ studio (right after his death in 1967). According to him, there have been contacts with a public state-owned institute6 who’ve tried to buy it. Finally, the purchase never happened because the public who wanted to preserve the archive, allegedly, didn’t have enough money to spend for it 7 . Eventually, Gulbenkian would do what the Portuguese state couldn’t afford.

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Nowadays, Centro Português de Fotografia (CPF) is the main public institution entitled for preserving the photographic memory of the country as well as the body of work from portuguese photographers themselves. Since 2001, it has 42.751 photographic documents from Horácio Novais transferred thanks to an agreement signed with Gulbenkian Foundation.

Incredibly, when asked this information was not provided and because of that it wasn’t possible to go through some of those images. I was told a different thing – 159 – which are images provided by the heirs of Horácio Novais to CPF, whose copyrights are restricted. Besides that, the institution has cameras and photographic equipment that belonged to the studio. CPF also has the only biography from Horácio available both online 8 and inside catalogues, but without quoting almost any sources or references for a text piece of a few paragraphs.

The documents from the box full of mysteries kept by Gulbenkian give important new clues Regarding the fact that most of these quickly analysed documents are primary sources; they can help to cross informations and even to add exact dates (or at least years) to some of the dozens of thousands of pictures from Horácio’s immense work.

Horácio Novais A GLIMPSE OF THE EARLY BEGINNINGS

Writing about Horácio Novais is to write about a photographer who not only worked on a lot of different subjects, as mentioned before, but one who covered nearly 60 years of 7

portuguese history, from the 20’s to the 80’s. We’re talking about a famous and well-seen photographer of his time.

Furthermore, it means we’re talking about the last member of a genetic generation of wealthy photographers – the Novais family (or Novaes, in the old spelling) – who documented more than a century of history, from kings to presidents and dictators, from soldiers to fishermen, from small villages to some of the richest companies and famous iconic people. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of consistent research about most of them.

Here are some of the details we know. His uncles Eduardo (1857-1919) and António (1855-1940) were portraitists, the latter one has been official photographer of the portuguese royal family. His father, Júlio (1867-1925), had a studio at the nº 28 of Ivens street, in Lisbon’s downtown. His brother, Mário (1899-1967) had his own studio in Avenida da Liberdade, one of the capital’s main avenues, as well as his own car driver, and did many kinds of works, from reportage and documentary to formal portraits of António de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970), also known as being very reserved and the main head of the portuguese dictatorship.

fig 1 - A postcard from Júlio Novaes studio.

Most part of the time while Horácio and Mário were active Portugal and his ancient colonial empire were under the influence

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of Estado Novo (New State), one of the longest dictatorships in Europe and in the world, and with very different moments. A main breaking point, we can argue today, was the pre and post Second World War period. After that moment, everything begins to slowly change, step by step, until a final revolution in 1974.

For this research, it was not possible to find and collect anywhere or from anyone a lot of data and information about the early and more intimate life of Horácio. His birthday is an exception: 9th of march 1910. The photo archive of Lisbon’s Municipality suggested in an exhibition’s catalogue 9 that, after learning the photographic technique with and in his father’s studio, Horácio became a reporter in 1926 of the newspaper ‘O Século’, one of the major portuguese papers by then. It was the paper of the eminent Joshua Benoliel, whose friendship and direct invitation brought Horácio into an internship 10 . He was 16 years old and his career was about to start.

fig. 2 - When Horácio Novais was still a young photographer

From now on, it’s relevant to remember that, as it was when it was bought, the entire Horácio’s studio archive (something like 93.465 photographic species, with 50.714 being part Gulbenkian’s collection after 2001) didn’t have any dated image or any kind of chronological organisation, whereby the conservators and curators have to constantly guess when a certain picture (or sequence) could

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have been made. If extended for 60 years of photographic work, that task becomes enormous.

Portugal (1910-1933) TIMES OF CONSTANT CHANGE IN A YOUNG MIND

In that same year of 1926 a group of military led successfully a coup d’état that dethroned the portuguese First Republic, established in 1910, very young and unstable specially after the heavy loss suffered with and after the First World War. The portuguese economy was, by then, in a very bad shape11. Only between 1913-1918 its gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 12%. Between 1916-1920, the public debt rose to 70% of the GDP. Still due to the consequences of the World War, there was a huge shortage of food and other basic imported products.

With a hungry people, it’s easy to understand why the country’s society was very agitated. Politically, the situation wasn’t different: in 16 years, the young First Republic has seen 8 presidents and 39 governments.

After establishing the dictatorship, the military invited Oliveira Salazar (a professor of economic sciences by then) to 10

become finance minister, assuming control over the budget of all ministries. Soon, he would be called “the poet of numbers” because of an economic “miracle” that happened within the Portuguese accounts. Salazar was determined to stay; as he said in 1928, “I know very well what I want and where I am going”. A few years later, after significant changes like the creation of a single party political system and similar measures that would reinforce the tentacles of the dictatorship and transfer more power to Salazar, a fig. 3

new Constitution appears in 1933. The New State is officially born, and Salazar becomes the almighty President of the Council of Ministers. A new era begins.

This new period of the portuguese history has, from its early beginnings until 1945, very little opposition. One of the few efforts happened in august 1931. Horácio was there (fig. 3) and photographed a failed armed rebellion against the dictatorship.

fig. 3

Curiously, when looking at his pictures, we realise that he only stays on the side of the government loyalists, as we see pictures of rebels being arrested, but also the government soldiers and the republic’s president, Óscar Carmona, saluting an injured soldier at the hospital. In spite of this visual option, there are no elements at all that can tell us wether Horácio felt personally committed to a certain political side or not. However, these are pictures that show for the first time a vision that shows the more official side of the

fig. 3

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story, the one that Horácio would apply very often when working for a very special and common client of important Portuguese photographers of the 40’s – the SPN (Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional / Secretariat of National Propaganda) – an essential tool of the New State created in 1933. fig. 3

An exception in a time of glory THE PRESS AND THE EXHIBITIONS IN THE 30'S

In the late 20‘s and 30‘s, Horácio is working already for several illustrated papers and magazines like ‘Eva’ or ‘Ilustração’ or ‘Notícias Ilustrado’ (fig. 4). In the meanwhile, as Sena (1998) noted, individual exhibitions were an extremely rare event for portuguese

fig. 4

photographers. In that time artists and photographers gathered their work in saloons, collectively. This trend would increase over the following years decades and heavily promoted by the New State. Indeed, it took some time until photography was recognised and welcomed as a possible art form or expression, and Mário Novais became one of three participants of the first arts exhibition of the country where photography has been included. The “First Saloon of the Independents” 12 of 1930 became one of biggest fig. 5

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exhibitions of the decade, according to Emília Tavares 13.

In this context, Sena explains too (but without specifying where and when), Horácio Novais is one of the few14 who truly became an exception and managed to organise public moments of individual glory.

It happened for the first time (fig. 6) between july and august of 1931. Horácio exposes 27 pictures in Lisbon at Casa da Imprensa (House of the Press), and becomes famous. Like in other exhibitions he has made, it’s nowadays impossible to know which

fig. 6

exact pictures he had there, unless we look into a few pictures taken during the exhibition itself and to what the press published about it. All major papers from the country write about him (fig 8) and decorate its illustrated pages and magazines with Horácio’s pictures and delightful words. Famous guests attend (fig 5&7).

Artists of all kinds, journalists and writers, photographers, politicians. The ambassador from the Spanish Republic visits the exhibition and buys one of the canvas. Spain had been another destination of Horácio’s work, who had become the correspondent of ‘Ahora’15 and published months before in ‘Estampa’ magazine.

In the final weeks of november of 1932, the portuguese press makes a new announcement: “one of the youngest fig. 7

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photographic repor ters of our time inaugurated, with extraordinar y success, a remarkable exhibition of ar t photographs” 16 . Horácio Novais organises a new individual

fig. 8

fig xx. Horácio at his first individual exhibition, 1931

exhibition, once again at Casa da Imprensa (fig. 9), and once again with an impressive number of guests, considering not only the press reports but the dozens of pages that compose the original book of signatures, also filled with hilarious drawings. And not to mention the fact that the prices of his 36 images are now a bit more expensive.

With these two first public acts, the 22 years-old photographer was now admired as an enormous emerging talent.

His glory arrives to the other side of the world, into Brazil: fig. 8

Horácio Novaes is the most popular of the 14

photographers from Lisbon. Not only would be enough his sense and the natural tendency of an artist to declare him a victorious. But most of all he has a super interesting spirit, the opportunity of his instants.

He’s more a photographer from the street than from a studio. His works are a precious documentation of the life of Lisbon. The most stimulating aspects of the pulse of the city, with its squares, its ruins, old convents, secular castles, the majestic grandeur of the Tagus, its popular types, its characteristics notes, its tradition, revive inside remarkable instants in all the windows of the metropolis, thanks to the wonderful lens of the dark chambers of Horácio Novaes.17 in Jornal Pequeno (Recife), 02/10/1931

fig. 9

In the end of 1932, Horácio gets an assignment from Diário de Lisboa to photograph the New Year’s Eve in Madeira island, a very popular one even today for its fireworks show. Those pictures would be the reason for a new exhibition in january 1933 at Ateneu Comercial, in the capital of Madeira, Funchal. The local press from the island writes: Novais seems to have no problems of time, is to say, shadow and light – he feels the necessary exposure, the shutter that would use, the kind of plate that is more appropriated, and the turns that the negative and the positive would take; until that his work delights and seduces us, even for being far away from the common photographic tone and character.18 in Diário da Madeira, 01/01/1933

fig. 10

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Some of the images from the New Year’s Eve would then fill the pages of Diário de Lisboa on the 9th of january 1933 (fig. 10).

Horácio’s last individual exhibition (fig. 12) of a glorious period for him happens the year after. In the last days of 1934, the event begins in Lisbon’s downtown, at ‘Salões da Sociedade de Propaganda de Portugal’ (founded in 1906 and also known as Touring Club of Portugal). One more time, the press writes about him (fig. 11 & 13), major national papers refill their pages with texts and some of the 58 pictures of the exhibition that lasted until the 8th of january 1935.

Whether in photographs of still-lives, especially flowers, in which the artist reveals superior insight to elect the subjects, and admirable power of directing, either in photographs on the open air, pages of flagrant reporting, pictorial aspects of the city - Horácio Novais is always a great photographer, for whom the lens obeys with intelligence and light collaborates with devotion. 19

fig. 11

in O Século, 30/12/1934

After this ‘last’ individual exhibition, following the official biography written by CPF, Horácio makes himself a decision of going through another path and becomes an active element of the saloon’s culture.

Why he did it or how this information was obtained, no answer could be found. It’s certain however that there is at least a fig. 12

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last record of an individual exhibition with pictures from Horácio in december 1957 at Palácio Foz, by then the headquarters of SNI (the institution responsible for spreading political propaganda in the country and encharged for the censorship). Having portuguese tourism as its main subject, 22 large format (50x60) colour photographs are presented. The papers write: "The gamut of colors and tons in all its values*appear on his reversal films, making Portugal even more beautiful. They are an authentic apotheosis of colour these superb works of Horace Novais."20 in O Século, 9/12/1957

According to the daily ‘Diário Popular’, those same pictures (shot already during the ‘industrial’ period of Horácio) had previously been shown in Vienna a while before.

Horácio also participates in collective exhibitions, including international contests. Just two examples. In 1947 he won the first prize the VI National Exhibition of

Floriculture 21 . In 1956,

Horácio also participates side by side with the big names of the

fig. 13

Portuguese photography of that time, on the 1st Exhibition of the Photographic Reporters 22 (fig 14).

It’s relevant to note that, specially at the beginning, all of those exhibitions happen in a time where differences between art,

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photography, journalism, and slowly, propaganda, weren’t still clear among the intellectuals. Thanks to SPN/SNI, a political institution created by the New State, these differences would become, intelligently, even more confusing but aggregated “to the good of the nation” (a mythical sentence of the regime).

fig. 14

fig. 15

Spirit A RENEWED POLITICAL CONCEPT

“Controlling both bodies and souls is the purpose of the device imposed by Salazar. This organization of mentalities is designed for all life periods of the Portuguese, from the school to the working areas, for all places of life, from the city to the countryside.

In their desire to shape mindsets, the chief of New State carries the right tools to indoctrinate the population.23”.

(Santos, G. D. 2008) 18

Since its early beginnings, regimes like the one led by Salazar in Portugal are aware that they’ve not been elected, and start looking at what tools and media are there available to help the process of own legitimation as forces of government.

The concept of modern propaganda use arises in a time where mass media had begun worldwide thanks to technological progresses achieved in the previous years in both printing and photographic techniques. It’s not only the time of Leica but also illustrated magazines that millions of people already read and religiously follow when the dictators seize or arrive into power.

“As an information and entertainment medium it was easy for illustrated magazines to become instruments of indoctrination. They had meanwhile achieved a high standard of printing technique and were sold in large numbers as easily digested reading matter. These were ideal characteristics for exerting political influence”. (Lebeck, R. and von Dewitz, B. 2001)

In Portugal, that strategy has been essentially defined by António Ferro (1895-1956), a man with an extensive list of life achievements, and thereby impossible to summarise in a few words. Ferro had been an influent journalist and intellectual of the country. He was an art admirer, specially the ideas and aesthetics of Modernism. With only 19 years-old had been the director of Orfeu, the magazine of the Portuguese modernists. Later on, after

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working with several national papers, becomes international reporter of Diário de Notícias, for whom he interviews all the eminent european dictators. Mussolini gives three interviews to Ferro, as well as the spanish Primo de Rivera and even Adolf Hitler. In 1932, Ferro interviews Salazar several times too. He doesn’t hide his own political preferences, writing on that same year what would become his task in the following years: A people who doesn’t see, who doesn’t read, who doesn’t listen, who doesn’t vibrate, who doesn’t go beyond the material life (...), becomes an useless and grumpy people. The Beauty – from the moral Beauty to the plastic Beauty – should be the ultimate ambition of men and races. Literature and art are the two major organs of that aspiration, two organs that need a constant pitch, which contain, in their tubes, the essence and purpose of Creation.24

Completely aligned with the time he lives in, Ferro is invited by Salazar to become the mentor and first director of SPN. Throughout the final season of the 30’s, and mostly in the 40’s, a new political program shaped by him starts: “Política do Espírito” (Politics of the Spirit). The goal of Ferro was clearly to induce a change of mindsets through an intelligent and combined use of arts and literature, history and folk traditions. For this task, he not only imports much of the modernist aesthetics into propaganda, as he uses the best of all kinds of artists of his time (Pomar, A. 2008), which means this would also embrace and give fig. 16

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plenty of work to a lot of portuguese photographers in that time, including Horácio (fig 16).

It’s also relevant that this media strategy promoted by the regime would also give an extra reason to reinforce the tentacles of censorship (existent since the beginning of the dictatorship yet never officially).

fig 17

SPN created its own photo archive25 in 1938. Concerning photography, a first example of the new politics for the cultural affairs of the country was an entire album of political propaganda publish by SPN under the title ‘Portugal 1934’ (fig 15+ 16), with the name of Horácio Novais on the list of photographers. Exuberant, filled with a mix of large photographs, photomontages and fig. 17 - Setting up different parts of ‘Exposição do Mundo Português’

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graphical numbers proclaimed by the regime, as the number of roads built, a growing and prosperous economy, a multi-continental nation, a proud youth; following a lot of common trends happening in Italy,

Spain, Germany or Russia during their effort

of legitimation through the rhetorics of the image.

fig. 17 - Óscar Carmona and Oliveira Salazar

fig. 18 - Ceremony of the portuguese political youth: Mocidade Portuguesa

fig. 19 - Welcoming the president Óscar Carmona

A similar experience happens again 6 years later when it’s published the album ‘Portugal 1940’. By these years, Horácio Novais gets several assignments from SPN, probably the major client, by then, of the studio that he opened just years before. In the early 1940’s, he and his brother worked as official photographers for massive propaganda operations such as

fig. 20 - Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the “National Revolution, the coup d’État of 28th of May.

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fig. 21 - The opening of ‘Exposição do Mundo Português

fig. 21 - ‘Exposição do Mundo Português

‘Exposição do Mundo Português’ (Exposition of the Portuguese World) - fig. 17 & 21). It was an entire exposition city area and lasted for a year to commemorate two major centenaries – the

fig. 21 - ‘Exposição do Mundo Português

foundation of the Portuguese state (1140) and the restoration of independence (1640). It was also seen as international symbol of Portugal as a peaceful country in a world on the brink of being at war. That was a constant message of the propaganda from the 40’s from a country afraid of the world war. Indeed, Portugal was barely affected by the Great Depression (Rosas, F. 1996) and declared neutrality after the war started, exporting goods and making deals and agreements with both sides of the conflict.

In 1941 António Ferro and his SPN create ‘Panorama’ (fig 22), a new monthly illustrated magazine that would promote the fig. 22 - The first number of a political magazine

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name and stories of Portugal until the end of the regime. Horácio’s work appears on its pages (fig 24) from its early beginning until at least 1946 with all kinds of reportages and images: from the typical portuguese woman to a new high road or the reproduction of a traditional folk sculpture. It’s curious to verify a confusing yet clever mixture of photographic languages and styles that are present on the publications produced by SPN, as Emília Tavares explains: T h e j o u r n a l i s t i c , co m m i s s i o n e d , n a t u r e o f photographic image production on which the New State founded these first publications, characterised the formal nature of these images as both objective and real, a combination that was confused with the concept of tr uth, and which efficiently and pragmatically served the ideological purpose that the regime was to make of such images for mass publicity. (Macek, M. 2010. Vol II)

fig. 24 - Reportages with pictures from Horacio.

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A week after the surrender of Germany, in may 1945, Horácio photographs a huge popular demonstration supporting Salazar for his politics of peace. Some of his images showing the crowd and the dictator covered the front-pages of most national papers the following day (fig. 25).

fig. 25

fig. 25 - Salazar observes the crowd from the window.

Ironically, the country and the regime would become different after the war, and face more and more opposition from every side, as it remains as one of only dictatorships in Europe, with its colonies almost intact. Culturally, it wouldn’t be able to adapt inside a context that became different. Photographers and artists start moving to different backgrounds, many of them censored. Changes inside the cultural policy of the regime are introduced: SPN removes connotations with propaganda from its 25

name and was from then on called SNI (Secretariado Nacional de Informação). Ferro abandons the political activity in 1949, and dies less than a decade later. Panorama magazine shows more and more official acts from the regime, religious ceremonies, and becoming more a propaganda bulletin than a catalogue filled with stories for the promotion of the country, as Ferro originally wanted26. fig 26 - Sociedade Central de Cervejas

MAJOR CLIENTS (1955-1965) Philips CUF + Lisnave TAP Hotels & Cinemas Fundos de Fomento SOREFAME Standard Eléctrica C. Santos: Mercedes Banco Nacional Ultramarino Nestlé Caixa Geral de Depósitos Câmara Municipal de Lisboa Cristino da Silva (Architect) Leopoldo de Almeida (Architect) Olaio

The documented industry

fig. 27

A BUSINESSMAN

For Horácio, this seems to be also a period of change, in both his personal life and career. According to one of the conservators of his collection, there is a distinctive kind of work he produces from the moment he starts raising a family. And, in fact,

fig 28 - Companhia União Fabril (CUF)

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letters from friends who write him in the late 40’s let deduce that he had now a family with little children.

Despite the fact that Horácio had been working as

fig 28 - Casa Havaneza

independent photographer for already several years and clients (since he opened his own studio in the 30’s); if we look to his books of records, assignments and clients, we realise that it’s in the 50’s that the amount of work for clients increases astonishingly.

It was time for business and industry. Apart from that, this side of Horácio’s career is also a precious document of the portuguese economic life of these decades, since many of those companies and clients do not exist anymore. Later on, until and throughout the 70’s, Horácio also photographs for the advertising industry.

The list of those for whom Horácio has photographed is huge and goes from the portuguese airline company to private but famous architects, national theatres, cinemas and hotels, generals and universities, car and insurance companies, the Municipality of Lisbon and Philips, olive and train factories, Nestlé and electric companies, banks and state-owned companies.

The first year when that frenzy work truly starts seems to be 1955. Seeing his records, only between april and may, Horácio’s

CLIENTS (April-May 1955) TAP Associação Industrial Portuguesa Junta Nacional das Frutas União Eléctrica Portuguesa Escultor Leopoldo de Almeida Architect Bento de Almeida Architect. Cristino da Silva Architect. Rodrigues Lima Architect. João Limões Amadeu Gaudêncio F.N.A.T. (Fundação Nacional para Alegria no Trabalho) Câmara Municipal de Lisboa Companhia de Seguros Ourigal Casa da Imprensa Tomaz de Mello Hotéis Alexandre de Almeida Teatro Nacional Sanitas C. Santos (Mercedes) Companhia Nacional de Electricidade Philips Carrasqueiro & Teixeira Cidade Universitária de Coimbra Architect. Francisco Keil do Amaral Kodak Compal Sociedade Central de Cervejas Architect. António Lino Architect. Lino Tudela

studio serves an impressive list of clients. fig. 29

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This amount of work for very regular and major clients would last for decades, and very intensely at least until 1965.

A very interesting exercise is to observe how HorĂĄcio fig. 30

fig. 30

fig. 30

photographs even when he’s doing a specific kind of work for very specialised clients. When shooting, he was not only focusing his attention of a major detail, but several dimensions of it, telling a story from a documentary point of view. Thus, when shooting the fig. 30

subway of Lisbon, he’s not only going to photograph the carriages, but also the empty station, inside tunnels, and photographs either people buying tickets or the relationship with the outside world.

Another example comes from Azeitona Cordeiro, a producer of olives and olive oil. In a time where many enterprises used to give housing to their workers, but also when trade unions fig. 30

28

were not allowed to exist, Horácio documents the social dimension of work, the female workers leaving the product drying on the rooftops, the fields and the trees where the olives come from, the final package or the business dimension (fig. 31).

fig. 31

fig. 31

fig. 31

Another ver y regular client of Horácio’s work was SOREFAME (fig. 32), a manufacturer of trains and other kinds of heavy industrial goods. Also in here, we can find several

fig. 31

dimensions of the company’s reality. He has photographs from interiors of luxurious wagons to huge factories where those same trains are built, from people boarding in to the transportation of the trains from the factory by sea.

fig. 31

29

fig. 32

fig. 32

fig. 32

fig. 32

Home sweet home fig. 32

A LOVER OF LISBON

Horรกcio Novais was a man of Lisbon, a urban visual poet using the capital of the country as the main stage of his photography. He lived and worked in downtown, his studio was

30

located in the top of one of the buildings in Rua da Horta Seca, number 7.

Throughout his career, it’s possible to follow the evolution of the urban space of Lisbon and see it changing. He shoots a lot of panoramic images (some of them from his own studio’s balcony

fig. 33

fig. 33

with a view over the Tagus river), as well as urban details, architecture (a big legacy from the New State), crowded streets, night shots, typical neighbourhoods like Alfama, the capital covered with snow in 1945, or the common people and workers of the metropolis. fig. 33

31

fig. 33

fig. 33

fig. 33

fig. 33

fig. 33

32

fig. 33

fig. 33

fig. 33

fig. 33

As a comparison exercise, it’s interesting to find a very urban and diversified language that Horácio prints on his pictures, resulting in a similar visual energy of image-makers of the city from the same time frame such as André Kertész (1895-1894) or Berenice Abbott (1898-1991).

fig. 33

33

The traveler AN INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION

Horรกcio travelled to several places not only inside Portugal but also abroad, and exchanged correspondence with the outside world from early times. Besides photographing good part of his own country, he visits and photographs Madrid, Paris, Brussels. fig. 34

fig. 34

Because of this research, one of those previously unseen albums whose images are from Madrid has been published online

by Gulbenkian Foundation. fig. 34

34

The photographic work from Horácio has been admired, requested and published through several international media and agencies. As far as it’s possible to know, it’s by the time of his first exhibitions in the 30‘s that it’s possible to find the first international outlooks into the work of Horácio.

In 1931 Horácio gets a new kind of job, becoming correspondent of ‘Ahora’27 , from the republican neighbour that was Spain back then. On the 15th of january, and again on the first day of february, 1931, the daily newspaper has its front-page filled with fig. 35

pictures from the new correspondent (fig. 35). In fact, a month

iíílahipa

U n i n c e n d i o d e s t r u y e el a l a x^cjuíercía ¿c\ <^Do- X>v en Lrísh oa

before that, december 1930, the photographer had also signed in Estampa (another important spanish illustrated magazine) a photoreportage with pictures from a fire on the seaplane Dornier Do X around Lisbon (fig. 36).

Un incendio ha estado a punto de destruir la monstruosa aejonave que, después de su visita a España, amaró en Lisboa. El siniestro se produjo a Jas dos de la mañana. En el momento de advertirse el fuego, sólo se hallaban a bordo d'> la aeronave, el oficial de servicio y cuatro mecánicos.

IVr fortuna, los daños se han reducido a la destrucción completa de la envoltura del ala Izquierda, Pero este accidente impedirá, al

¿j ,£,^_ ^^ ^^^^^¿^ ^^ ^^¡^^ ^^¿^^ ¡^ ^^^^^ ^^ g^^.^ ^^^^.

^^ j ^ y^^ ^^¡ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^¡ -j-^.^^ ' ;

By the same period of time, local press writes that the name of Horácio was the only portuguese photography published at Illustration magazine, but no more information could be found Dos aspectos del ah destruida, y en la qiie, desaparecida la envoltura, queda al descubierto ¡a complicada articulación que constituye el esqueleto de ¡a misma. (Fts. Horacio Novaes.

about this detail. As quoted before, critics of his first exhibitions

Palacio del Mueble | ALCOBAS. COMEDORES. DESPACHOS, TAPICERÍA, CAMAS DE BRONCE

HOTEL PRÍNCIPE ASTURIAS M A D R I D

Económico, bitn situddo, muy confortable.

MADERAS ADRIÁN PIERA Santa Engracia, 125,

Fernando VI, 3,"MADRID

are also written in brazilian papers.

fig. 36

From the National Association of Amateur Photographers of Hungary, a country who gave birth to specially eminent photographers of the 20th century, Horácio receives a diploma with a honourable mention on the 20th of october 1933, in fig. 37

35

circumstances that are apparently not clarified yet, apart from the information written on the diploma found inside the ‘mysterious box’. (fig. 38) Going not too far away from the land of the Magyar, Horácio also receives a honourable mention coming from Vienna.

It happened in the autumn of 1932, on the edge of the International Exhibition of Photography.28 Decades later, in 1957, some of the images he did for a portuguese public enterprise are also shown in the capital of Austria29. fig. 38

The list goes on. In 1936, the London based Westons Picture Agency invites Horácio to supply images of “well-known people” of Portugal for later use in the press. From Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, the agency Neopress also initiates in 1945 a collaboration with Horácio (fig. 39). Agencies from New York also get in touch with him. In 1964, he wins the third prize of Kodak’s international contest of colour photography. Finally, in 1971, the publisher Grolier International buys maps’ reproductions of Horácio for encyclopedias.

fig. 39

36

One of many CONCLUSION

The photographs we have are made upon the ignorance of a near and distant past, upon successive omissions, voluntary or involuntary, and thanks to foreign models which are superficially adopted.

The creative worries of photography in Portugal are unknown to its photographers. Since 1978 many of the photographers I know still ask me the same absurd question: “but is there something to see and say about photography in Portugal?” 30 Sena. A. (1991)

It’s not sure what happened to Horácio after the revolution of 1974 that brought democracy and the political right to diversity back into the country, until nowadays. We don’t know how affected he was because either of censorship (before the revolution) or in the aftermath because of the political divisions that happened in the years after. But we know that many of those companies he photographed would close their doors forever.

We know he also went to street to capture some stills in those days of revolutionary change, yet those images are not public yet. He kept on shooting his cameras afterwards, until his death more than a decade later, on the 5th of december of 1988.

There are still many stories to tell about this photographer’s extensive photographic life and successful career.

37

The most shocking detail about doing research like this one is to realise how forgotten are Portuguese photographers with such an impact quality as Horácio’s. And since we’re talking about of the the mainstream photographers, the ones who’ve published and were famous in their time, that sense of memory become even more shocking if we think about those who weren’t living in Lisbon, who weren’t on the mainstream media, those who’ve been erased from the natural records of history. It’s a task that requires plenty of time and patience to find basic information like who these photographers were, what and when and where they have photographed.

Portugal is an expert on history, and with such a vast stay in Europe and attending the fact that unlike most part of the continent its borders have remained mostly the same for several centuries, is a country that should have a moral obligation for itself to remember central figures of its own history. In the case of photography, going back into the contribution of Sena, it’s always impor tant to remember that a countr y that forget his photographers is a country without an active visual culture and tradition. As he says even strongly, a Portuguese culture does not exist “without knowing what its photographers, its graphic artists, its editors, its typographers, its designers, its scientists, have done”.

38

VISUAL APPENDIX

The Studio in 1998 photographs by: Paulo Catrica

39

Horรกcio Novais: a later portrait unknown photographer and date

40

References & Bibliography Azevedo, C. 1999. A Censura de Salazar e Marcelo Caetano. Lisbon: Editorial Caminho Folgado, D. 2012. A nova ordem industrial no Estado Novo (1933-1968) - Da fábrica ao território de Lisboa. Lisbon: Livros Horizonte.

Ferro, António. 1949. Panorama dos Centenários (1140-1640-1940). Lisboa: Edições SNI Freund, G. 1986. La fotografía como documento social. 4th Ed. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.A. Lebeck, R. and von Dewitz, B. (2001). Kiosk: Eine geschichte der fotoreportage/Kiosk [1839-1973]: A history of photojournalism (bilingual). Göttingen: Steidl Macek, M. 2010. The History of European Photography 1900-1938 (Vol. I & II). Bratislava: Central European House of Photography Ó, J. 1999. Os Anos de Ferro - O dispositivo cultural durante a "Política do Espírito" (1933-1949) 1st Ed. Lisbon: Editorial Estampa Rosas, F. 1996. O Estado Novo nos Anos 30 - Elementos para o Estudo da Natureza Económica e Social do Salazarismo (1928-1938). 2nd Ed. Lisbon: Editorial Estampa Sena, A. 1991. Uma História de Fotografia / Portugal 1839 a 1911. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda Sena, A. 1998. História da Imagem Fotográfica em Portugal - 1839-1997. Porto, 1st Edition: Porto Editora Tavares, E. 2005. Joshua Benoliel (1873-1932), repórter fotográfico. Lisbon: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa Tavares, E. 2009. Batalha de Sombras - Colecção de Fotografia Portuguesa dos anos 50. Vila Franca de Xira: Câmara Municipal de Vila Franca de Xira V/A. 1940. O Século: 1140, 1640, 1940 (suplemento) Lisboa: MCMXL V/A. 1934. Portugal 1934. Lisboa: Edições Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional (SPN) Rosenblum, N. 1997. A World History of Photography. New York: Abbeville Press

41

Scholarly articles

Lira, S. 1999. Exposições temporárias no Portugal do Estado Novo: alguns exemplos de usos políticos e ideológicos. in Colóquio APOM/99 - Museologia Portuguesa, Balanço do Século Pomar, A. 2008. Fotografia neo-realista em Portugal (1945/1963?) - introdução. Link: http:// alexandrepomar.typepad.com/alexandre_pomar/2008/09/da-fotografia-neo-realistaa.html Santos, G. D. 2008. Política do Espírito: O bom gosto obrigatório para embelezar a realidade. in CIMJ: Revista Media e Jornalismo (issue 12) Estudos de Teatro e Censura PortugalBrasil. Link Siza, M. T. 1990. Fotografia e fotógrafos, antes e depois da Revolução do 25 de Abril. in Instituto Camões: Revista Camões (nº 5). Link Tavares, E. 2011. Hibridismo e Superação: A Fotografia e o Modernismo Português. Link: http:// www.emiliatavares.com/uploads/5/7/8/9/5789024/hibridismo_e_superao_emlia_tavares.pdf Martins, N and Duarte, A. P. 2010. A Primeira República e a Sustentabilidade das Finanças Públicas Portuguesas: Uma Análise Histórico-Económica. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão.

Audiovisual

Estética, Propaganda e Utopia no Portugal de António Ferro, 2012. [Film] Directed by Paulo Seabra.

Portugal: RTP

Photographic Archives and Collections Biblioteca de Arte da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa - Núcleo Fotográfico

42

Footnotes 1

Sena, A. 1991. Uma História de Fotografia / Portugal 1839 a 1911. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda

2

Original text, in Portuguese:

“Por incrível que pareça, tratava-se, na realidade, da primeira panorâmica da fotografia em Portugal desde os seus primórdios até à actualidade. São demasiado estranhas as condições e as repercussões da fotografia durante mais de século e meio” (Sena, A. 1998).

Original in Portuguese: “Em Portugal, a investigação fotográfica é praticamente nula. Limita-se à publicação de alguns artigos de jornal ou revista, comunicações dispersas sem o apoio de qualquer sistematização bibliográfica ao nível de autores e ou obras”.

3

Macek, M. 2010. The History of European Photography 1900-1938 (Vol. I & II). Bratislava: Central European House of Photography 4

Part of those documents and more information about the collection of Mário Novais currently owned by the Art Library from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation can be found on the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ biblarte/collections/72157606056616635/ 5

6

Instituto Português do Património Cultural

7

Source: O Diabo, 13/01/1987. A press clipping of this article was found among Horácio’s studio belongings.

8

It’s possible to read it here (in portuguese): http://digitarq.cpf.dgarq.gov.pt/details?id=39176

Rever Lisboa: uma viagem pelas colecções do arquivo fotográfico da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa. - Lisboa : C.M, [1989] 9

10

Information provided by one of the conservators of Horácio’s archive

11 To

further reading: (in portuguese)

Martins, N and Duarte, A. P. 2010. A Primeira República e a Sustentabilidade das Finanças Públicas Portuguesas: Uma Análise Histórico-Económica. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. Link: http://www.google.com/url? sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iseg.utl.pt %2Faphes30%2Fdocs%2Fprogdocs%2FAntonio%2520%2520PORTUGAL%2520DUARTE%2520e%2520NUNO %2520MARTINS.pdf&ei=kz8UIjtF8Th4QT3toGABg&usg=AFQjCNH_fmPtHdlsK_tEC3WkTyGIcWisLg&bvm=bv.41248874,d.bGE 12

Original name: “I Salão dos Independentes”

in Tavares, E. 2011. Hibridismo e Superação: A Fotografia e o Modernismo Português. link: http:// www.emiliatavares.com/uploads/5/7/8/9/5789024/hibridismo_e_superao-_emlia_tavares.pdf 13

Besides Horácio, António Sena only mentions three other photographers who managed to have individual exhibitions in that time: Francisco Viana, Tavares da Fonseca and San Payo.

14

15 This

information was firstly retrieved from CPF’s biography, and then confirmed by front-pages of the newspaper that were kept by the photographer on his personal document’s archive, and rediscovered now.

Date and title of newspaper are not clear. The page of the article was on one of the books of press clippings and guestbooks that Horácio had about his own exhibitions.

16

43

17 The

article was not signed. It was included on a feature called “From our correspondent”. Original text, in Brazilian Portuguese.

"Horacio Novaes é o mais popular dos photographos de Lisbôa. Não lhe bastariam apenas o censo e a inclinação natural de artista para consagra-lo um victorioso. Mas elle tem sobretudo a torna-lo um espirito interessantissimo, a opportunidade dos seus flagrantes.

E mais um photographo de rua do que de atelier. Os seus trabalhos sao uma documentação preciosa da vida de Lisbôa. Os aspectos mais palpitantes do labor quotidiano da cidade, com as suas praças, as suas ruínas, os conventos seculares, os castellos lendarios, a grandeza magestosa do Tejo, os seus typos populares, as notas caracteristicas, as suas tradições, revivem em flagrantes admiraveis por todas as vitrines da metropole, devidas á objectiva maravilhosa das camaras escuras de Horacio Novaes”.

18

Original text, in Portuguese:

“Para Novais parece não haver dificuldades de hora, isto é, de sombra e luz; - ele sente a necessária exposição, o obturador que há-de empregar, o tipo de chapa que é mais próprio, e as voltas que o negativo e positivo hão-de levar, afim de que o trabalho nos encante e nos seduza, até, por afastar-se do comum tom e caracter fotográficos”.

19

Original text, in Portuguese:

“Quer nas fotografias de naturezas-mortas, sobretudo flôres, em que o artista revela superior visão ao eleger os motivos, e admirável poder de realizador, quer nas fotografias de ar-livre, páginas de reportagem flagrante, aspectos pinturescos da cidade – Horacio Novais é sempre um grande fotografo, para quem a objectiva obedece com inteligencia e a luz colabora com devocação”.

20

Original text, in Portuguese:

"A gama cromática das cores e as semitonalidades em todos os seus valores surgem nos seus diapositivos, tornando Portugal ainda mais belo. São uma autêntica apoteose de cor estes soberbos trabalhos de Horácio Novais."

Its original name was ‘VI Exposição Nacional de Floricultura’, organized between the 21st and the 30th of july 1947. Sponsored by the regime, its official opening was made by the Republic’s President, Óscar Carmona.

21

‘I Exposição dos Repórteres Fotográficos’, has been organised at Casa da Imprensa (House of Press) between the 25th of May and the 1st of June, and had important names of that time like Judah Benoliel, Ismael Ferreira, Armando Serôdio, Beatriz Ferreira or Denis Salgado.

22

23

Original text, in Portuguese:

“Controlar os corpos e as almas é pois a finalidade do dispositivo imposto por Salazar. Esta organização das mentalidades é pensada para todos os períodos da vida dos portugueses, desde a escola até aos espaços laborais, para todos os lugares de vida desde a cidade até ao campo. Na sua pretensão de moldar as mentalidades, o chefe do Estado Novo arma-se com os instrumentos adequados para levar a cabo a doutrinação da população. A criação do SPN em 1933 coincide com o início da institucionalização e consolidação do regime, com a determinação de afirmar a hegemonia do poder do novo presidente do Conselho”.

24

Original text, in Portuguese:

"Um povo que não vê, que não lê, que não ouve, que não vibra, que não sai da sua vida material (...) torna-se um povo inútil e mal-humorado. A Beleza - desde a Beleza moral à Beleza plástica - deve constituir a ambição suprema dos homens e das raças. A literatura e a arte são os dois grandes órgãos dessa aspiração, dois órgãos que precisam de uma afinação constante, que contêm, nos seus tubos, a essência e a finalidade da Criação" 25 With

the end of the regime and the SPN/SNI in 1974, the remainings of the photo archive are now saved at Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. Over there, it’s possible to find several images from Horácio.

44

26 About

this, it was written on first editorial of the magazine, 1941:

“That is the main purpose of PANORAMA: be a place who evokes what is most characteristic and alive in the Country, and gives it, therefore, an own physiognomy and differentiate expression”.

Connected with the moderate republican wing, Ahora saw its first number being released on the 16th of december, 1930. It was founded by Luís Montiel de Balanzat, also the mentor of the ilustrated magazine Estampa (1928-1938). Based in Madrid, Ahora becomes an important daily paper that manages to cover the whole territory of Spain. Disappeared in 1936.

27

28 The

source is ‘Eva’ magazine, issue of October 1932, for whom he photographed in that time.

Diário Popular writes about this on 12th of December, 1957: “The austrian technicians didn’t know that in our country such remarkable kind of work were being done” 29

Original in Portuguese: “Os técnicos austríacos desconheciam que no nosso país se fizessem já tão notáveis trabalhos daquela natureza” 30

Original text, in Portuguese:

“As fotografias que temos são feitas, assim, sobre a ignorância de um passado próximo e longínquo, sobre sucessivas omissões, voluntárias ou involuntárias, à custa de modelos estrangeiros superficialmente adoptados.

As inquietações criativas da fotografia em Portugal são desconhecidas dos seus fotógrafos. Desde 1978 que muitos dos fotógrafos que conheço me continuam a fazer a mesma pergunta absurda: ‘mas há alguma coisa para ver e dizer da fotografia em Portugal?’”

45