In my last post I wrote that I’d start 2014 by posting lots of older stuff from the past year, due to the huge amounts of photos I have in my backlog, which by now I’m finally finding a way to get them out of my hard drive. But that’s not entirely right for this post, as it includes many older photos, taken in the past two years. A kind of photo project that started two years ago and ended this year. “Kind of” because it didn’t started as a proper project, and in fact I doubt that it ever was one, but somehow I found a theme in the last couple of years.
Roughly two years ago, by the end of 2011, I started to photograph the many rallies and protests that were happening in Lisbon. It was the year things went downhill here in Portugal, with a bailout and budget cuts everywhere, so protests became more regular and larger. I had recently returned from Myanmar and was thrilled about people and street portraits, places of big crowds are playground perfect for this.
I rapidly realized the obvious: I’m not a freelance photographer, I could photograph what I wanted, I didn’t have to take pictures of the speeches, the leaders and the frond of the protest. So I rapidly shifted my attention to the people in the middle and the back of those big crowds, most of them were average men and women, not related to movements, parties or labor unions.
Man holding carnations during protest on April revolution celebrations.
Protester standing at the stairs of parliament during Global Occupy protest.
Protester marching during Global Occupy.
Elderly woman listening to the speeches during Mayday protest.
Girl with carnation standing over decommissioned tank during April 25th (Carnation Revolution) protest.
Crowd waiting for the main speeches during Mayday protest.