"Work began on this photographic project back in 1997. One of the reasons for the work was the production of a fresco of the society of Setúbal at the end of the 20th century. It involved three years of doubts, meetings, pleasures and work. Following an initial period of searching for a thread, of hesitations, of experiments, I opted for a path of simplicity, of freedom from artificiality, of face-to-face encounter with the subject. I adopted the stance of a travelling fairground photographer who drapes a cloth to photograph passers-by.
I set up my cloths in a fish warehouse, at the fish auction, at the Lisnave shipyards at Mitrena, at the Setúbal prison house, at the abattoir, in garages, at my studio. About 300 people were photographed. Many more were not.
Almost all those asked accepted the invitation and the challenge of appearing, their soul bared, before me. Photography involves things of this sort, in exchange for a little eternity.
Several different worlds passed before my fairground cloths. Fishermen, entrepreneurs, magicians, poets, prisoners, priests, car-park attendants, vegetable sellers, company directors, variety artists.
It was an enriching journey from a human point of view. I heard the fado sung in my studio, I saw gypsy dances, I read poems with poets, I listened to tales told of lives spent at sea, I shared joys and sorrows. Particularly marking were the three nights spent in a fish warehouse at the Setúbal auction house, during which, between four and eight in the morning, people passed before me, shivering with cold (it was January), but they still had enough patience to put up with me.
No written record of this will be kept, and this I regret. For photography does no more than fix a moment of life. I hope, however, that the small moments that I have captured will allow one to penetrate a little into the different worlds through which I have travelled."
Maurício Abreu
taken from the introduction
Publisher: Edições Inapa S.A.
Project and production of the book: Maurício Abreu
Photography by Maurício Abreu
Introduction text by António Barreto
Design by Vasco Ferreira
Colour separation by Jacinto Guimarães, Lda, and printing by Eduardo Cardoso, Litografia Tejo, Lda.
SBN: 972-8387-67-9
Size: 25 x 32,5 cm; 152 pages
135 black & white photographs, printed in three tones with a layer of varnish.
1st edition: September 2000
