Serralves | October 2024
The extensive Archive of Fernando Guerra donated to Serralves includes more than 2,500 reports and 500,000 images, most of the work carried out in the last 25 years of activity by FG+SG Architectural Photography.
In addition to the importance of preserving the collection and what this protocol means in terms of recognition of the photographer’s work by the institution, the objective of this donation was also to allow and provide the study and dissemination of its content, through media, conferences, conversations, publications and exhibitions, both in Serralves as well as in other national and international institutions, thus guaranteeing access to a wider audience.
It is worth noting that the Fernando Guerra Archive deposited in Serralves will continue to be enriched annually with photographs of the upcoming photo sessions.
“About yesterday and the donation of my archive to Serralves foundation. Today, with a slow awakening, as if I had gone through a transformer moment in my life, I have few words to write about what I feel, besides a great need to express my deep gratitude to the @fundacao_serralves
I hope that the images I have delivered will be useful for future generations. I am grateful to my clients who have been by my side since the beginning and to the new ones for whom I have only just started photographing in recent days. It is gratifying to see that their works, without us having foreseen it, will become part of this enormous archive of architecture, being preserved and made available to students, journalists, enthusiasts, and anyone else who needs to study a particular period in the future, free of charge.
Knowing that, 50 years from now, someone will be able to access a work I completed this week gives meaning to what I’ve done and to what I will continue to do every day in the coming years. Yes, because stopping is not in my plans, but improving my photography certainly is.
New works will be added to those already delivered over the coming years.
I express my deep gratitude to Serralves for the invitation and also for seeing my work, my archive, alongside the archive of the great Álvaro Siza. Someone I’m close to, and will remain at least on these two archives connected forever. There are few words to express what this means, but a great happiness is, without a doubt, at the heart of it all.
There are truly things that cannot be planned. And it’s a good thing too; I believe it’s one of the pleasures we take from all of this: the good surprises.
I thank Serralves for this opportunity, for all the care throughout the process, and finally, for being one of the places where I have been happiest photographing.
Thank you.”
Fernando Guerra
October 19th, 2024
