Portugal. A Very Neat Place (Part Five - The Algarve); September 2019
; September 2019&layout=none&ref=https://bobeastaughimagery.zenfolio.com/blog/2020/2/portugal-a-very-neat-place-part-five---the-algarve-september-2019)
Fado is Portuguese soul. As an art form it is only about 150 years old. But it captures passion and made us fans. A Tavira museum offered matinee concerts, although it was mildly jolting to leave the dark interior - that suggested the tavern culture of fado's origins - and re-enter bright afternoon sunlight. True converts, we also went to a commercial fado evening show in Lisbon (mostly attended by people with smartphones), and Tereza and her ensemble in Tavira were better. Behind Tereza is a black and white photo mural depicting Amalia Rodrigues, considered historically to have been the greatest fado singer (but Mariza is - as we will see - her worthy successor).
EF4A9540-Edit
The 12-string guitar is essential to the tradition.
EF4A9543
Faces from the Lagos esplanade:
IMG_8691-2
EF4A8754
EF4A8740
EF4A9321
EF4A8746
EF4A8758
On a door stoop in Tavira, a man knits and sells trinkets.
EF4A9712
Lagos in day and night:
EF4A9333
EF4A8486
The tuna are long gone, but industrial-level salt harvest remains a commercial mainstay in Tavira.
EF4A9816
Comments
After a lifetime of mainly expressing myself with words, my postings here will mainly rely on images. They will speak for themselves to some extent, but I'll usually add a few comments of explanation. I've taken photographs for decades, since the 1950's, inspired in part by my father's photographic skill. Four years of photo assignments and quality darkroom time eventually gave way to decades of casual and family picture-taking. I re-immersed myself when I left film and turned to digital.