Lisbon photographic experience

PROGRAMME

Lisbon is a special city, where the influence of the vast Atlantic mingles with the typical colours and forms of the Mediterranean. It is a city of contrasts and surprising discoveries – in a landscape of hills slipping into valleys that together tumble down to the river; in an architecture that sees ancient buildings stand side-by-side with the most modern constructions; in the city’s spirit, where tradition continues to live and thrive alongside a flourishing cosmopolitanism. And there’s one more contrast too, and perhaps the most surprising, that can come upon us almost without us noticing – from the shadows of the narrow streets to the broad, vivid light of the miradouros (literally, ‘golden views’), the squares and the riverside…

After arrival on the first day, we begin by taking photographs at the Parque das Nações, the riverside zone boasting the city’s most spectacular recent architectural works. Here we find the clean lines of Álvaro Siza’a Pavilhão de Portugal reflected in the waters of the river, transparent glass buildings, and the iconic outlines of edifices such as the Oceanarium or Santiago Calatrava’s Oriente Station. After this, we head for Oriental, an area still throbbing with the memory of its industrial past, and where disuse has created its own fascinating ambience. Then, following the course of the river towards the older parts of the city, we plunge into historical neighbourhoods of narrow streets pulsing with a life of their own. In Alfama, we uncover the traces of an Arab past and allow ourselves to become lost in a labyrinth of small streets, alleys and cascading steps where there is always something to discover and photograph. But it’s when we arrive at the miradouros, the places most unique to and characteristic of Lisbon, that we discover a true vision of the city, with its variety of architectural styles laid out at different levels all around us. We finish the day with a look round Chiado, the heart of the 18^th century city, and still elegant, cultural and trendy today. And it’s here that we find our discreet and charming boutique hotel, with the lively bars and restaurants of the Bairro Alto neighbourhood  just a short stroll away.

Our second day gets underway early so that we capture the light of sunrise in the still-sleeping streets. Wandering on foot, we will come upon the hidden corners where, with the eye of a photographer, we can almost breathe in the silence of the deserted city, suspended in the moment of waiting for the arrival of its actors.  For the afternoon, our continuing discovery of the city takes us onto the river for a journey by boat, following the margins of the city down to the port area with its huge, colourful containers and silhouetted cranes. Raising our gaze higher our attention will be snagged by groups of houses scattered lazily on the hills… All of it impossible not to capture in original photographs. The uniquely luminous light of dusk – that magic hour between the setting of the sun and arrival of the coming night – will come upon us before this part of our journey ends on the other side of the river, opposite the city. Here we will have dinner at a restaurant with a truly magical view of the sparkling city.

Our third and last day comes with a new dimension brought by a change of pace. Just like Lisbon’s residents on Sunday mornings, we will mount bicycles to explore the cycle ways that run along the edge of the river, heading today in the direction of the historical area of Belém. On the way, we will pass by the old warehouses of the port area and the river boat stations where the ferries slip to and from the city, until we arrive among the landmarks of Portugal’s era of Discoveries. Here the Atlantic light reflects off the water in such a way as to command the landscape, almost leaving the monuments themselves as mere additions, and leaving us with the feeling that, as a the words picked out in huge letters on a riverside wall say, ‘The landscape has no owner.’ And this light, also, it could so easily add.