Paper short abstract:

The present paper focuses on the exhibition " Restos de um Império" (Remains of an Empire), by Luís de Almeida, which approaches the photographer's experience in Mozambique, first as a Portuguese military during the Colonial War and afterwards as a traveller and NGO collaborator.

Paper long abstract:

Luís de Almeida was sent to Mozambique in 1973 by the Portuguese government to take part on the war fought between the Portuguese military and the local nationalist groups that ultimately lead to the independence of the Portuguese colonies. Almeida established a close relationship with the country and its people, which he maintained over the years, continuing to visit Mozambique, either with several NGO in humanitarian missions or simply on his own. During his visits Almeida gathered documents about the country's colonial and post-colonial history and developed photographic projects that mirror his affinities with Mozambique. One of those projects, entitled by Almeida "Restos de um Império" ("Remains of an Empire) was the inspiration source for an the exhibition with the same name now being prepared to be held at Espaço Campanhã, Porto, on march 2018, curated by the anthropologist Maria Manuela Restivo and the curator Vera Carmo.

The exhibition unravels in two distinct groups that dialogue with each other in space: his work and his biography (based on his private archive), stressing the continuousness between his personal involvement with the place and its people and the historical contingencies that he constantly tries to understand, particularly the ones related to Portuguese colonial and post-colonial presence. Almeida's singular biography, ranging from his experience as a soldier in Mozambique and later as a photographer, enables the emergence of a singular perspective that unsettles the recurrent polarity between colonizer and colonized, simultaneously contributing to the heterogeneity of experiences and visual representations of the colonial encounter.