The Story

Tile, Light, and the Atlantic Coast

Portugal is a country of sharp contrasts within a small footprint. Lisbon spreads across seven hills above the Tagus River, its oldest quarter, the Alfama, a maze of cobblestone streets faced in azulejo tiles — the blue-and-white, and sometimes yellow and green, ceramic patterns that started as a practical way to regulate a building's temperature and became the country's signature surface. Half an hour outside the city, Sintra rises out of a damp, forested hillside with a cluster of Romanticist palaces, Pena Palace's red-and-yellow towers among the most photographed landmarks in the country. Farther north, Porto is more compact and monumental, built in granite along the Douro River and paired naturally with the port wine terraces upriver; south, the Algarve coast is known for dramatic limestone cliffs and some of Europe's most photogenic beach light.

This shoot moves across that range — architecture, coastline, and the everyday texture of Portuguese cities — building a visual record of a country where centuries-old design and Atlantic light are constantly in conversation.

Selected work

Portugal