Cidade Sombra (Shadow City)
Dublin Core
Title
Cidade Sombra (Shadow City)
Shelfmark - 187.ULAND.MARTINS
Subject
Poetic
Description
Cidade Sombra, a photo book about Lisbon
‘The image we construct of a city is usually made up of a series of relatively pleasant and innocuous clichés: monuments, views, green spaces, landscapes populated or marked by architecture and advertisements that have become absorbed into the urban fabric. In one way or another, these elements are all present in the photography of Fernando Martins, but less as motif and more as something pre-existing, to which the apparent disorder of urban life adds meaning, but also raises questions. The image of the city is, therefore, subverted and our immediate impressions are challenged by certain “additions” that originate not in some deliberate urban planning scheme, but in the dynamics of everyday life.
Martins entitles his book Cidade-sombra (Shadow-city) and this is particularly appropriate for his aim is to capture and frame what escapes our immediate perception in order to build another vision of the city, in this case a city where daylight refects off the Tagus River and comes back at us enhanced. Martins' vision is essentially a nocturnal one, not because he has an especially saturnine temperament, but because the night, its shadows, its unsettling chiaroscuro, better allows for a consideration of what the day, with its nonchalant clarity, hides from view.’
From the foreword by António Mega Ferreira
‘The image we construct of a city is usually made up of a series of relatively pleasant and innocuous clichés: monuments, views, green spaces, landscapes populated or marked by architecture and advertisements that have become absorbed into the urban fabric. In one way or another, these elements are all present in the photography of Fernando Martins, but less as motif and more as something pre-existing, to which the apparent disorder of urban life adds meaning, but also raises questions. The image of the city is, therefore, subverted and our immediate impressions are challenged by certain “additions” that originate not in some deliberate urban planning scheme, but in the dynamics of everyday life.
Martins entitles his book Cidade-sombra (Shadow-city) and this is particularly appropriate for his aim is to capture and frame what escapes our immediate perception in order to build another vision of the city, in this case a city where daylight refects off the Tagus River and comes back at us enhanced. Martins' vision is essentially a nocturnal one, not because he has an especially saturnine temperament, but because the night, its shadows, its unsettling chiaroscuro, better allows for a consideration of what the day, with its nonchalant clarity, hides from view.’
From the foreword by António Mega Ferreira
Creator
Fernando Martins
Publisher
Abysmo/ Arranha Céus
Date
2016
Format
Clothbound hardcover
Book Item Type Metadata
Dimensions
23,5 x 33,5 cm
Number of Pages
144
Number of images
115
Edition Size
500
Place of Publication
Portugal
Designer
Carlos Guerreiro
Editor
Abysmo/ Arranha Céus
Printer
M2
ISBN
978-989-99586-6-1
Website
https://www.facebook.com/FernandoMartinsPhotography/
URL Link to project
https://www.abysmo.pt/livros/69-cidade-sombra
Where to buy
https://www.abysmo.pt/livros/69-cidade-sombra
Links to reviews
https://www.publico.pt/2016/08/26/local/noticia/na-sombra-das-maquinas-fotograficas-de-fernando-martins-nasceu-uma-outra-lisboa-1742339
Collection
Citation
Fernando Martins, “Cidade Sombra (Shadow City),” Photo Book Cafe Archive, accessed May 24, 2025, https://photobookcafe-archive.co.uk/items/show/187.