I feel very privileged to be from a country that is so rich in culture and history . Portugal once owned half the world and was also one of the largest and longest lived empires ever; with a period of over 6 centuries of discoveries and colonizing countries. Portugal’s monasteries, monuments, buildings and stories are some of the oldest and most historic to this day. The capital; Lisbon, is the second oldest city in Europe and for all these reasons, I wish to make it my subject for my photography book. Portugal is not remotely close to being a big county and on the scales of cities in this world, Lisbon, is also not considered a big city, however, thanks to Portugal and Lisbon in particular, many countries in this world were discovered and rose in civilization. Unfortunately, Portugal is dismissed by many nations and people , it is mistaken for another province of Spain which is it’s only neighboring country. Portugal was under ruling of a monarchy until the early 1900’s and then was under communist dictatorship until 1975 when the revolution occurred and we became a republic.
I propose taking photograph’s of the most unique and most historically relevant castles, monasteries, churches and gardens in Lisbon. I would like to highlight the older districts of Lisbon such as Alfama which is the first hill in the 8 hills that make up Lisbon. Alfama has one of the oldest castles :São Jorge, in the world as well as some of longest standing monasteries ever like Jeronimos . My target with these photograph’s is not only to honor my country in its courage and bravery to discover so much of our world and its creative architecture over time in Lisbon but also to expand the knowledge of my piers and young millennials as so many disregard this mighty little country and how it’s history influenced other nations history too. I also would like for Portuguese people to see these photograph’s as I believe it will bring great pride in them about their nation and their heritage.
If granted this project will be split into three parts like a story with a beginning, a middle and an end this is also how I plan to split Lisbon so that I can focus on different districts through a chronological and historical time line of the city. This will require three weekend trips which I estimate to be during December and January where I will follow a strict itinerary for each of the three parts. For each photograph I will add a brief summary of the historical relevance and value to Lisbon and Portugal but in addition I will also write how I felt and the atmosphere and ambiance that each building gives to me as a native Portuguese and draw comparisons and differences to my half Irish heritage.
I wish to evaluate this project in two ways; technically and emotionally. I would like to see how people react to these photos and get first hand feedback of their opinions and how the photos made them feel. Then I would like to analyze my project from a technical camera aspect and how my work could be done differently but also how it makes me feel when I hear different opinions from people who are not Portuguese in comparisons to people who are.
joannamariacorreiadbs 