I went to the forest, just outside Alcobaça, with no particular plan other than to walk, observe and photograph what was around me.
It is not a large forest. In fact, that is part of what makes this place interesting. It feels like a small ecosystem that has somehow survived within a landscape that has changed considerably over the years. In this part of the region, areas of dense and varied vegetation are becoming increasingly rare as a result of deforestation and the progressive transformation of the land.
Inside, the atmosphere changes quickly. The vegetation filters the daylight, creating a quieter and more intimate landscape made of overlapping leaves, branches, trunks and small openings towards the sky. Instead of looking for wide views, I became interested in fragments: the density of the vegetation, the irregular shapes, the textures and the subtle changes in colour produced by light passing through the forest.
The photographs explore this enclosed world through natural, earthy colours. Greens dominate, but they are never completely uniform. Darker vegetation sits beside warmer leaves, dry branches and brown tones from the soil and tree trunks. Small areas of brighter light interrupt the deeper shadows and give the images a sense of depth.
There is something particularly photographic about places like this. Nothing is organised and there is no obvious subject. The composition has to be discovered among the apparent disorder of nature — a branch catching the light, a darker passage through the trees, a group of leaves or simply the relationship between different shades of green.
This small series is less about documenting a forest in a conventional way and more about recording the atmosphere of a place that still feels alive and relatively untouched.
Perhaps its modest scale is also what gives it meaning. Surrounded by a landscape where these small natural environments are gradually disappearing, this fragment of forest becomes more than just somewhere to walk. It is a reminder of an ecosystem that was once much more common around Alcobaça, and that today deserves to be noticed precisely because it has become rare.
( PT ) +
Fui até uma pequena floresta nos arredores de Alcobaça apenas para caminhar, observar e fotografar. É um pequeno ecossistema que sobrevive numa paisagem bastante transformada, onde áreas de vegetação densa e diversificada se tornaram menos comuns.
No interior, a luz filtrada pelas árvores cria uma paisagem íntima de folhas, ramos, troncos e pequenas aberturas. Em vez de procurar grandes vistas, interessei-me pelos fragmentos, texturas e variações de verde. A série é sobretudo um registo da atmosfera de um lugar que ainda se mantém vivo e relativamente preservado.