the portuguese prison photo project: an exhibition about photographical insights into Portuguese prisons
From 19 April until 1 September 2024 at the Museu de Portimão, in Portimão, in the Algarve region
...and a conference on prison systems and prison architecture
On 24 and 25 October 2024 at the School of Criminology, Faculty of Law of the University of Porto. See more
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Days until the conference
Luis Barbosa
Photographer and teacher at the Instituto Português de Fotografia IPF Porto | born in 1975 in Porto, Portugal | recipient of the award of the S.A.P. for best work of photography 2017 | www.luisbarbosaphotography.com
Specializes in social and cultural photo documentation. He trained at the IPF Porto, where he now teaches photography. Asked to participate in this project, he was very enthusiastic. In his black and white pictures of the prisons visited, he wanted to put the emphasis on atmosphere and ambiance.
„As I never entered a prison before, I was pleased to be soon allowed to discover a new, hidden world, but also aware that participating would bring some emotional charge.“
Peter M. Schulthess
Photographer SIYU*, specialized in architectural photography, particularly of prisons | born in 1966 in Basel, Switzerland
www.prison.photography
His first photographic experience with a prison was in the old penitentiary of Basel at the beginning of the 2000s. It led to his lasting interest in prison photography. Documenting detention places became a long term project as a photographer and author. Next to the prisons of Switzerland, he visited and photographed facilities in Germany and in Portugal.
*Member of SIYU professional photography switzerland.
“This project brought me to a country I had never visited before. What would I see and what would I be allowed to photograph? Which pictures shall we be allowed to show?”
Part 1: prisons for criminal detention
Curated by Professor Maria José Moutinho Santos | Prison historian | CITCEM – University of Porto
The historical photographs presented were taken between 1876 and 1974, and belong to the collections of several state archives. These photographs, which were chosen from a universe of several hundred, provide a counterpoint to the contemporary images of Peter Schulthess and Luis Barbosa. If the latter ones reflect two different perspectives, the historical pictures were the result of different insights, shot in political, penal and prison contexts that largely differ from the current one.
"The very diversity of these images’ contents and contexts – which are of an unexpected documental richness – transformed my contribution within this project into a remarkable personal experience."
Part 2: prisons for political detention
Curated by Professor Luis Farinha | Historian | Nova University Lisbon
On the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution which marked the end of the dictatorship known as the Estado Novo (“Salazar dictatorship”), we are showing for the first time as part of our project photographs of the special prisons and concentration camps for political prisoners for the period 1926 to 1974 – in Portugal and the colonies.
“More than ever, it is important to show the reality of dictatorial regimes which use violence, imprisonment and torture to intimidate opponents and critics.”
Museu de Portimão
Museu de Portimáo | opened in 2008 | in 2010, awarded the Museum Prize of the Council of Europe
In the former factory hall of a cannery, the history of industrial fish processing in the 20th century is impressively shown – from the landing of the fish at the port to the finished tin can. In the factory hall, which is faithfully reproduced to the original, with conveyor belts, wire baskets, machines and ovens, life-size plaster figures stand at their workplaces and go about their daily work accompanied by tape recordings of the factory noises.
Other rooms in the new buildings of the museum complex are used for temporary exhibitions.
