Ferragudo is showcasing several works by the first professional photographers who portrayed the Algarve as a tourist destination, in an exhibition in Ferragudo until Friday, August 16
– July 26, 2024
The Algarve’s iconic touristic images in the 60s and 70s were created by photographers Asta and Luís de Almeida d’Eça who became renowned for their promotional photographs, creating the image of the Algarve as a tourism destination as we (still) know it today.
Professor and photography researcher Nuno de Santos Loureiro from the University of Algarve (UAlg) has been delving into the archives of the couple since 2019. The historic photos focused exclusively on promoting the Algarve as a new and attractive tourism destination at a time when tourism was still in its infancy in the region.
The exhibition, entitled ‘As Praias e o Povo – Asta e Luís de Almeida d’Eça’ (The Beaches and the People – Asta and Luís de Almeida d’Eça), was unveiled after a long selection process at the Casa do Real Compromisso Marítimo in Ferragudo, where it can be visited daily from 4pm to 8pm.
Photographs of beaches, the sea, fishermen, folk groups, and blooming almond trees were taken specifically for tourism promotion. These scenes we recognise today were created by them, and later on, other photographers followed in their footsteps. But they were the pioneers.
The couple’s work was focused on the Algarve’s transitional period from when beaches – which until then were mainly used for fishing – were starting to be used for bathing, and the photographers “captured and helped carry out this transition”.
The images created by them, which were even used in TAP Airline posters, are “still in our imagination when we think of the Algarve: the chimney, the almond tree, the paradise beaches, the fisherman, the donkey,” stated Loureiro.
According to the researcher, the couple were at the forefront of the golden years of the Algarve’s growing tourism sector between 1960 and 1970, and “they liked the Algarve so much that they bought a house in Armação de Pêra”.
Who were the photographers?
Asta Ella Føge Almeida d’Eça, born in Denmark in 1929, was the eldest daughter of a couple of photographers. After working as a photographer in several European countries, she moved to South Africa at the start of the 1950s at the invitation of a businessman linked to Kehlet Foto, intending to train new photographers and run their network of commercial establishments. She met her future husband during a holiday in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1954, and the two were wed in 1956.
Luís de Moura Coutinho Almeida d’Eça was born in Mozambique in 1924 and spent part of his youth studying in Lisbon. After holding an important position in the Sena Sugar Estates Lda (sugar production company), he moved with his wife to Lisbon where they both focused on photography as their main activity.
What’s certain is that the couple worked as a team. Apart from their work in the Algarve, they also worked for big airlines such as British Airways and South African Airlines, as well as the tourism boards in the Algarve and Cape Verde.
The couple continued to photograph the Algarve until the 1980s. However, after Luís D’Eça died at the start of the 1990s, Asta abandoned photography almost completely. She died in the Algarve in 2015.
Loureiro’s interest in the couple began with their 11-edition book series “Algarve, Portugal. Holidays in All Seasons of the Year”, published between 1969 and 1987. In 2011, the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar acquired their vast photographic archive, containing about 50,000 colour slides.
This archive is the basis of the exhibition, involving a partnership with UAlg, the municipalities of Lagoa (Algarve) and Tomar, the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, CEFT, and the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA).
Researcher Nuno de Santos Loureiro discovered the collection organised by regions during his visits to Tomar and selected 30 photographs for the exhibition, which was “very challenging because the collection is extremely interesting, rich, and diverse”.
Loureiro describes the collection as a “lost and now found treasure”, featuring charming hotels, local people, and traditional scenes.
He plans to publish a book with more photographs. “I want to revisit the entire collection,” he shared, admitting, however, that he will have to find partners to fund the edition.
“The Almeida D’Eça couple built a long and successful professional career, but it went largely unrecognised because promotion photographers are often overlooked. However, what remains is not their names, but the work they’ve done,” the researcher laments.
The exhibition will move from Ferragudo to Faro, then Lisbon in November, and Porto in January 2025, with images potentially on permanent display at regional tourist offices.
Original article by BRUNO FILIPE PIRES for Barlavento.
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