There is only one floor between the obstetrics and the intensive care unit. The elevator is the route to the scenario we all fear facing. On the fifth floor, the cries of the newborns bring some joy to those confined in the Intensive Care Unit suffering from covid-19 and struggling to stay alive. Whereas some are only slightly affected by this virus, for others it may very well mean they will have their last breath. As of December 31st, covid-19 has already claimed the lives of 6,830 people among 406, 051 infected persons nationwide. Health professionals have been going through an effort of herculean proportions giving their best to fight the most unequal battle we have ever experienced in our country. Learning to live after this global transformation will not be an easy task.

The workers of the San Carlos de Celanova nursing home in Galicia, Spain, celebrate the birthday of Elena Pérez, a resident with 98 years old and who had overcome the coronavirus two weeks prior. Nine residents already died due to the illness and more than forty tested positive for covid-19. The elderly have been the most vulnerable group during the coronavirus pandemic that rattled the whole world. 2020.05.02

A child is sitting inside a car near a forest fire in Oliveira de Frades, Portugal, on September 7 2020. Around 300 firefighters, 100 land vehicles, and ten firefighting planes fought this blaze in a difficult terrain amidst a landscape dominated by pines and eucalyptus.

African-American Walter Wallace, 27, died on October 25 in Philadelphia. He was killed by the police who, hitting him with at least 10 bullets, justified their action alleging that Wallace was wielding a knife in the middle of the street. The demonstrations in the city began two days ago. On the night of October 27, dozens of stores were completely destroyed and looted in the opposite part of the city where a rally against racism was taking place. Several were wounded and others were detained. The US presidential elections took place on November 3 with major candidates being Donald Trump of the Republican Party and Joe Biden of the Democratic Party. Joe Biden eventually wins and becomes the new president of the United States of America. Philadelphia, October 27, 2020.

Workers from the Santo António Parish Council in Lisbon dressed as Superheroes while working during the first lockdown of the covid-19 pandemic. The initiative sought to honor these people who work daily to serve the community assuring that the basic needs of the residents are met and services keep running. The idea highlights the work of the 64 employees of the Junta. It recalls the importance of all the people who carry out those seemingly ‘invisible’ tasks such as cleaning, security, administrative work, and social care.

César Casanova is 29 years old and was born deaf. At the age of 9 he started to lose his sight. Today his visual and hearing impairment is about 96%. Cesar’s world might be different from those who can see and hear fully. At least in perception and in the way he feels the reality surrounding him, but his ambitions are as large as anybody else. He studies Mathematics at the Science School in the University of Porto, and dreams of writing a book and teaching blind and deaf kids. During the week, he stays at the students’ residence where he is helped by the staff while also keeping some independence. The context is about the deconstruction of a given reality - particularly the relation between the way César communicates and his actions. Touch and footprint are some of the ways he can communicate and reach out to others. That is the way César overcomes the bridge that separates him from everything else.

Agrações is located about 25 kilometers from Chaves. It is a small village with only twelve permanent inhabitants. There are no new buildings and, except for the few inhabited houses, the remainder are derelict. Everything suggests that the village will eventually disappear. If its dwellers move out or pass away, Agrações will go with them. Today they live from agriculture and the livestock they raise, and also from collecting chestnuts. There are no off hours nor weekends. They work every day. There is no sanitation or running water here. Each inhabitant had to build his own water tank to have bathrooms and to feed the animals. Agrações perfectly illustrates the problems and challenges in the villages of Portugal’s inlands. A country full of inequities.

A narrative dedicated to my Mother. A story about life and resilience, about love and hope. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare type of cancer, in October 2012, she has since faced the disease and its dire consequences. In 2014, she completed the first bone marrow auto transplant. In the following years the cancer had been in remission. In 2020, after the disease became active again, she had to be submitted to a new auto transplant. Isolated and parted from her loved ones due to the pandemic while hospitalised at IPO (the Portuguese centre for oncologic diseases), this was her journey during the second transplant.

The most persistent mark of human weakness is perhaps war, a brutal expression of the inability to live in harmony with others, those who think differently, who pray differently, who are different. The colonial war claimed and annihilated the future of thousands of young Portuguese. For the most part they were forced to fight for something they did not believe or understand. The alleged defense of the homeland masked Salazar's imperial obstinacy, and was rejected by the rest of the world. The throes of dictatorship left physical and psychological scars in those who participated in it. The disabled of the Armed Forces only gained due recognition and rights by joining a non-militaristic association. They are at once the symbol of the horror they were subjected to and an example of the determination with which they reinvented themselves and stood up once again.

Trans is defined as a person who has abandoned the identity that has been attributed to them by their own identity, in a process called gender transition. The transition often involves adapting the body so that gender and body identity coincide, defining new territories, bodies on the border between male and female. Just as the transition creates relief in the body, so to the territory and landscape are mutable - on a higher time scale. Based on this assumption, I search the symbolic states in the territory that connected me to the idea of transition and to the assumptions conveyed in the dialogues and writings of the people I portrayed. I went through border-like environments where everything is changed: occupation, geological, orographic, just as the relief of the body is changed along the transition.

In the first months of isolation, my children and I embarked on a collaborative project to develop a portrait series. As the reality of the lockdown settled, as a family we tried to come to terms with the ‘new normal’. The kids were at home 24/7, their schools were closed and any social and sporting activities were canceled. Watching my pre-teenage son and my nearly 5 year old daughter having their childhood disrupted by the rapid proliferation of a threatening new virus, triggered some unfamiliar anxieties. Using an old Kodak Carousel slide film projector and our home as a canvas, we incorporated images of faraway places into scenes of the children’s daily routine. The projections provided some distraction from the new uncharted reality and brought enthusiasm and a sense of wonder in the children.