COSTA

José Pedro Cortes (Portugal)

Costa, a suburb to the south of Lisbon whose beaches are among the most visited by inhabitants of that city. Costa da Caparica is also, however, a zone with pockets of social and urban precarity, a place in which the leisure economy and urban regeneration policies have not been enough to eliminate social, architectural and environmental vulnerability. These images depict numerous features of this hybrid territory, including places, rudimentary constructions, objects and people. The sequence of images suggests a physical (but also mental and critical) journey made by the photographer through various locations along the Costa da Caparica. It should also be mentioned the strange luminosity that permeates these images, a dazzling and mysterious light which imbues these spaces with a disconcerting and unreal atmosphere, like something seen while in a hypnagogic state,

encouraging the spectator to participate in a suggestive and paradoxical exploration of individual experience and public awareness, between factography and imagination.

Sérgio Mah

These images speak of that strip of land that exists between the last stretch of civilization and the beach. Shacks, some belonging to fishermen, outmoded architecture, remains of houses, dirt left by the tide; an agglomeration of vegetation and streets – a peripheral, end-of-the-line location. A frontier zone, on the outskirts of a larger mass, disfigured by time and by the anarchic will of man.

José Pedro Cortes

This project “Costa” was presented for the European Photo Exhibition Award -  commissioned by four institutions (Deichtorhallen - Germany, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian - Portugal, Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca - Italy, Fritt Ord – Norway) and curated by Rune Eraker, Sérgio Mah, Enrico Stefanelli and Ingo Taubhorn under the theme of "European Identities". 

JOSÉ PEDRO CORTES (Porto, 1976) studied photography at Ar.Co (Lisbon) and, in 2004 completed a Master of Arts in Photography at Kent Institute of Art and Design (Rochester, UK). In 2005, after 3 years living in London, moved back to Lisbon and was part of Gulbenkian Creativity and Artistic Creation Programme in Photography (Lisbon). On that same year had his first solo exhibitions in Centro Português de Fotografia (“I will not reveal you”) and Silo (“Silence”), both in Porto, Portugal. Was also selected for the Photo London - Emerging Artists Presentations and, in 2006, took part in the Getty Images curated exhibition New Photographers 2007. In 2011 was invited (with other 11 European photographers) for Körber-Stiftung’s European Photo Exhibition Award on the theme of European Identites. The work was shown in four museums - Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris, Fondazione Banca del Monte in Lucca, and the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo.In 2012 was invited to photograph in Toyama, Japan, as part of the EUROPEAN EYES ON JAPAN project. The project was shown in 2012 in Maribor  as part of the European Capital of Culture and in 2013 will be exhibited in Japan.In 2006 published his first book 'Silence'  and the second book, "Things here and Things still to come" was published in November 2011.He is the founder and editor of Pierre von Kleist editions and has so far published and edited 13 books. Regularly gives workshops on photography practice and book editing. His work is represented in the following public collections: BES Art, PLMJ and Coleção Nacional de Fotografia/Centro Português de Fotografia.