[ Fotografia de Arquitectura ] Paulo David's Centro das Artes

The following images and text are courtesy FS + SG | Fotografia de Arquitectura for Paulo David's Centro das Artes | Casa das Mudas on Portugal's Madeira island. The text below is excerpted from photographer Fernando Guerra's essay, "A Short Stay" in Centro das Artes | Casa das Mudas. Click on images at left for larger color views.

To have the opportunity to photograph one of the most recognized and distinguished projects of national architecture in recent years is, above all, an enormous privilege. In the Center for the Arts, I encountered images that reflect the form through which I see architecture and the manner in which I like to safeguard such images.
       
To look at a work is above all a voluntary act and one of critical selection. Only afterwards can we actually move closer and situate ourselves in relation to it. Even if never absolutely dominating the view shot, the photographic eye is always and above all the realization of a particular way of seeing. These photographs are a visible part of a personal register that
seeks to be an instrument for understanding reality.
       
From my experience at the Center for the Arts, I have retained the constant surprise and emotion of one who discovers a new work. What remains are the memory of the unexpected angles, the cut of the volumes against the loaming landscape, the frames resting on the interior light, the strength of the texture and richness of the stone, the confrontations between the opaque darkness and the transparent light of the glass.
       
The lasting sensation is that in some of these images everything seems to have prepared itself to be photographed, as if the Center for the Arts were waiting for a glance that would recognize and reveal its pose. Perhaps this is simply a furtive glance of one person's short stay in Calheta. I hope to return shortly.