Lisboa as 8
Lisboa às 8 is a daily photographic portrait of Lisbon, made one hour at a time.
For two months—from late March to late April—I will photograph Lisbon every morning from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. Always the same hour. Always the same city. Sometimes in the neighborhood where I’m living, sometimes somewhere else. Each day revealing something slightly different.
This project is built on a simple idea: to observe Lisbon not as a spectacle, but as a lived place.
At 8 a.m., the city is awake but not performing. Shops lift their shutters. Cafés fill with regulars. Commuters move with purpose. Light slides across tiled façades and narrow streets. The rhythm is local, habitual, and largely invisible to tourists who arrive later in the day.
Lisbon is uniquely suited to this kind of work. Its strong Atlantic light, steep streets, layered history, and human-scale neighborhoods reward repetition. The city reveals itself slowly—through routine, gesture, and texture rather than grand moments.
But Lisboa às 8 is not nostalgic or escapist. It is grounded in the present.
Today’s Lisbon is navigating profound tension:
- rising housing costs and displacement
- pressure from mass tourism
- aging infrastructure alongside rapid modernization
- the push and pull between local life and globalization
These realities don’t announce themselves. They appear quietly—who opens a shop, who no longer does, who rides the tram, who cleans the streets, who has time to sit, who does not. Morning is when these stories surface most clearly.
By photographing the city at the same hour every day, Lisboa às 8 turns repetition into meaning. Patterns emerge. Absences become visible. Small changes accumulate. What begins as routine becomes narrative.
Why Me?
Although I’ve been taking photographs since the early 80’s, I didn’t decide to get serious about using a camera to observe the world and share my observations until 2015.
My influences are Saul Leiter, Joel Meyerowitz, Harry Gruyaert, Arthur Meyerson, and Sam Abel. I’ve also learned a lot from Jorge and Christelle of The Raw Society; I’ve traveled to Cuba, Nepal, Morrocco, Istanbul, New Orleans, and Vietnam with them.
My work appeared in Issue 2, 3 and 4 of the Raw Society Magazine. My work has also appeared several times in the photo magazine CubaSeen and been exhibited in the A Smith Gallery and the Hoffman Gallery. My writing has been published by Wiley Publishing and Third Door Media.
About the budget