As a teenager, like everybody else, I had to decide what kind of professional career I was going to develop. That society really put importance to that, got clearer every time I was asked `what do you want to be when you grew up?´ and my answer should not be something ridiculous like taller, happy or musician. Usually, I replied that I had absolutely no idea. Because I really didn’t! I saw grown-ups go to work in the morning and in my environment that mostly meant some office of factory job, the local chicken killing plant and (cattle) farming. None of those I found particularly attracting.
The Dutch schooling system was pretty much geared towards learning a lot of stuff and then get a job, and be a good – productive, obedient – citizen. Spiritual development was, at least in my circle not really a thing. Being a social person meant falling in line and walk the walk. Get a good job with more pay and you’re OK, that sort of thing.
Looking back on those years, I am sometimes surprised by my own blindness for options outside, what we would now call, the narrative. Even while I was extremely critical of a lot of things that I saw in the society I was growing up in, like the acceptance of violence and war, capitalism and economics, rules, regulations and social structures as carved in stone. I read newspapers, books and encyclopaedias and listen to a lot of music.
As an indication of my blindness – I never considered a professional career in journalism, investigation, photography or even politics. Now, being older, I understand that I was blinded by the way school and parents were filtering the information and through that the choices that I thought were available. The photos in the papers and the documentaries were there, yet it somehow never occurred to me that those were made by people who had chosen to do that as a profession. Let alone that I could be part of that world. Luckily, I managed to get some relevant shots after moving to Portugal. Go figure.
Anyway, in those same years, all over the world people were documenting the changes in their society and a lot of their work not only stands the test of time in terms of quality, but the existence of it appears to be even more important than back then.
Enter Luiz Carvalho
In 1974, Luiz Carvalho was roughly ten years older than I (he still is, of course). We can assume he had at least some idea about his career, considering he was studying architecture. Little did he know his life was going to change completely when he walked out into the street on April 25 with his camera to make pictures of the revolution that was rapidly turning over people’s lives.
The day marked the beginning of a career that would span several decades. He published his first photographs in 1972 in the weekly “Observador.” A photojournalist since the late 1970s, he photographed for “O Primeiro de Janeiro,” “Tal & Qual,” and “Grande Reportagem,” and for about two decades worked at “Expresso,” where he was also a multimedia editor and photo editor. For SIPA Press he worked as a correspondent.
His work is in the National Library of Paris and he was invited to exhibit at the “Mois de La Photo” in Paris in 1982. He was part of the “Contemporary European Photography” exhibition organized by the Canon Gallery in Amsterdam, a show that toured several North American cities in 1983.
Among his published books are “Portugueses” (1985), “Ao correr do Tempo” (2013), “Sons do Douro: Caderno de Viagens” (2018)
In 2001, he exhibited and published “Lisboa & Lisboetas” at the Municipal Photo Archive and “Imagens da Vida Real” at the Cascais Cultural Center.
He was awarded the Gazeta Journalism Award in 1991 and a Visão Award in 2005.
His photography is represented at the Portuguese Center of Photography and the Saragga Leal Foundation.
The exhibition at Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes shows images taken during the turbulent chapter in Portugal’s history – the period between the revolution and the failed coup of 25 November 1975, known as the Ongoing Revolutionary Process (PREC) – in a new book and exhibition titled 50DE25 (da velha senhora aos heróis da malta).
In 2009, Luiz moved focus to his company, Lightshot, continuing to work in photojournalism while also teaching courses he regularly offers.
He also produces and directs television programs, most notably TVI24 – Fotografia Total, and FOTOBOX on RTP3.
