Twenty years after Artur Pastor had his last exhibition in Albufeira, but in some cases, seven decades after having recorded the first images of the then town, the city now pays tribute to the life and work of the photographer and to the legacy he left behind in the county.
Thus, on the 9th of June, in two exhibition centers, one at the Municipal Museum of Archeology, the other at the Municipal Archive, the exhibition «Albufeira por Artur Pastor» will open.
The exhibition, which aims to mark the International Day of Archives, celebrated precisely on that day, at the initiative of UNESCO, was held within the scope of a partnership between the Municipality of Albufeira and the Municipal Archive of Lisbon – Núcleo Fotográfico, holder of the photographer's estate since 2001, and has the collaboration of Artur Pastor (Son).
The two exhibition centers, stresses one of the organizers, are «complementary and inseparable in the reading of Artur Pastor's work and vision of Albufeira».
In the Archeology Museum the nucleus «The sea and its peoples» will be on display, where Pastor «captures the fishing fauna, the maritime spirit of the people of Albufeira and the tourist environment of the time, allowing us to see the hardness and truth of a fishing life and the type of relationship that tourists established with the beaches of Albufeira and Algarve, realizing in their photographs the harmony existing in these two realities with such different meanings».
The exhibition is presented to the public through 35 photographs from the 40's, 60's and 80's and through the screening of the 2014 documentary “The Landscape of Artur Pastor”, directed by Fernando Carrilho.
In the Historical Archive, you can see the nucleus «Locals with history», in which Pastor «captures the urban daily life of Albufeira, over several decades».
«The photographer, without looking for it, documents two precise times, recording more than a vision, it promotes an anthropological and ethnographic document, which creates the memory of a people in a place, the streets, the people, the habits and customs, the experiences» and, with that, “offering the city a witness of its collective memory”.
This exhibition consists of 42 photographs between the 1940s and 1990s and is complemented by a copy of the album «Algarve – Portugal», by Artur Pastor, dated 1965, from the book «Imagens do Passado», published by the Municipality of Albufeira in 2007, which includes photographs by Pastor, a copy of the catalog of the exhibition «Motivos do Sul», from 1946, the book of honor (and other documents) from the exhibition «Algarve (40 – 60) – Apontamentos», from 1998, a collection photos of family vacations spent in Albufeira, provided by Artur Pastor (son) and the presentation “O mar de Artur Pastor” (projection of 90 photos and excerpts from texts from the book “Algarve-Portugal”).
Who was Arthur Pastor:
Arthur Shepherd (Alter do Chão, 1 May 1922 – 17 September 1999), was a Portuguese photographer.
He finished the Agricultural Regent course in Évora, at Herdade da Mitra, in 1942. The first photography job he did was to illustrate his final thesis. It was then that he discovered a taste for photography that would fascinate him until the end of his life.
In Évora, where he lived at the time, he became involved in numerous projects and began to present his works in illustrated publications, postcards, stamps and posters.
During this initial period of his artistic life, he collaborated in several newspapers in the south of the country with articles of opinion and of a literary nature.
In the early fifties, he went to work for the services of the Ministry of Agriculture in Montalegre. At that time, he tried to form a photographic association in Braga. In 1953, he moved to Lisbon. In this city, it becomes part of the 6×6 Photo Club.
He belonged to the State staff for about thirty years, as an Agricultural Technical Engineer. Over these years, he was responsible for obtaining and organizing the more than 10 photos that make up the Photo Library of the General Directorate of Agricultural Services.
At the same time, it collaborated with other organizations linked to agriculture, such as the National Olive Oil, Wine, Fruit Boards and the National Federation of Wheat Producers, among others.
For his service as a photographer at the Ministry of Agriculture, he was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of Agricultural and Industrial Merit (Class of Agricultural Merit).
He registered thousands of photographs at the request of the most diverse official bodies and large companies, especially in the field of agriculture and tourism.
He collaborated, with hundreds of photographs, in official exhibitions and fairs, in the country and abroad. Participated in National and International Photography Salons. At the National Salons, he regularly won the first prizes.
Opening Hours
History file| «Places with history»: 9:00 am – 17:00 pm (Monday to Friday)
Albufeira Municipal Museum of Archeology | «The sea and its people»: 9:30 am – 17:30 pm (Tuesday to Sunday)
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