a deus, a deus
2023 / ongoing
Goodbye, ‘saudades’ and greetings.
This was (almost) always the end of the letters received by the families of those who were deployed in the Colonial War. The communication to the family was always careful to reassure the recipient. Sometimes the letters were accompanied by a photograph of themselves, in an already rehearsed pose, to reinforce what they had written: that they were well and healthy.
My grandfather is one of these many cases. Posted to Negage - in the North of Angola - in 1965, he met one of his colleagues, António, who, even though he was «the man with the camera», ended up being one of the most photographed.
One in charge of the plantations and animals and the other of a bar where they lived together, their photographs portray the other side of the Colonial War, in a place where there was a certain tranquillity and difference from the surrounding areas of armed conflict.
Through the photographic archive of my grandfather Manuel and his companion António, the individual context of each photograph is reinterpreted, creating a narrative line that addresses the background of the war and the coexistence with the natural residents of the region.