On the way from the Algarve to Coimbra, one crosses the Alentejo. With the exception of a short time during spring, the wide open landscapes
of the Alentejo are colored in warm and monochrome shades of brown. This image was
taken sometime around midday during high summer, by the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. The oak on the horizon, placed right in the
center of a ridge and the symmetry of the landscape got to me. However, the conditions were about the worst possible to take a photograph - no shadows,
no contrast. I used to travel with a little point-and-shoot camera, a yashica T4, to be precise. I wanted to use a red filter to enhance the image
contrast and I had to hold the filter over both the lens and
exposure meter. The negatives were underexposed and I used a self-mixed rodinal-type developer which enhances image grain. So the image was not
only without contrast but also underexposed and grainy. It wasn't the easiest image to print but, in the end, this is exactly what the central plain of
the Alentejo looks like: little contrast and monochrome. The final image was partially bleached and toned in thiourea, giving it a brown sepia tone.
Planície como página
este é o chão que procurava
silêncio feito asa
quase pão quase palavra.
Para ser canto
para ser casa.*
Manuel Alegre (1937)
Alentejo e ninguém
* I discovered Manuel Alegre on a pack of sugar, the ones you get with your coffee. Each one came with a different poem by
a Portuguese author. I cut this one out and kept it; it's now glued to my office computer. It
translates to something like this:
A plain as page
this is the ground I have sought
silence made wing
almost bread almost word.
To be song
to be home.
