Tinho Saudades Tuas - ‘I missed you’
“The famous saudade of the Portuguese is a vague and constant desire for something other than the present, a turning towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness.” A.F.G Bell.
Saudades is analogous to a feeling of nostalgia, a longing for all that Portugal stands for.
It is reflective of mariners embarking for the discoveries, critical to the Portuguese history. It is a universal feeling related to love, a word that gave meaning to the sadness felt by those who departed on journeys to the unknown seas. Those who stayed behind - mostly women and children - profoundly suffered from their absence, and such a state became a ‘Portuguese way of life’. It is the constant feeling of absence, the sadness of something missing, the wistful longing for completeness or wholeness and the yearning of presence (as opposed to absence).
The difference between nostalgia and saudades can be described as: nostalgia is a feeling for a loved one who has died, and saudades is a feeling for a loved one who has disappeared, with the hope that whoever is being longed for will return, even if the return is unlikely or so distant in the future to be almost of no consequence to the present.
These photographs capture the essence of this feeling, through the light and architecture of Portuguese culture.