The exhibition “WHAT ARE YOU DOING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?” by Alexandre Simões is currently on display in the city centre’s Livraria Portuguesa (“Portuguese Bookshop”), bringing together images spanning from the 1990s to the present.
The exhibition runs until tomorrow. Inaugurated on February 5, the exhibition presents a selection of photographs described as entries in a visual diary, reflecting Simões’ authorial universe* across multiple temporal layers, according to a statement by the bookshop.
The statement points out that the body of work explores memory, identity and the persistence of lived experience through photography.
The exhibition highlights Simões’ devotion to analogue photography, emphasising it as a narrative tool that sustains connection with people and real life – their encounters, intimacy and cultural references, including music and cinema, the statement noted.
His images strive to preserve “the identity of an unextinguished era”, creating a labyrinth of visual moments that intersect past and present, the statement added.
The photographs convey themes of solitude, nostalgia, love and absence, alongside lifestyle references shaped by cultural influences. According to the statement, the aesthetic choices are deliberate: “There are no distractions,” adding that attention is directed towards shadows, subtle gestures and the quiet emotional charge of each frame. Through the dialogue between images, the work reflects on the inexorable passage of time, suggesting that the past endures and expands within the present.
With free admission, the exhibition remains open to the public in the bookshop’s basement until tomorrow evening, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., offering exhibitiongoers a reflective encounter with Simões’ analogue photographic practice and its meditation on time, memory and permanence, the statement concluded.
* “Authorial universe” refers to the fictional world created by an author. – Poe
Some of the photos of Alexandre Simões’ “WHAT ARE YOU DOING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?” exhibition on display in the basement of Livraria Portuguesa (“Portuguese Bookshop”) in the city centre.– Photos: Khalel Vallo
