Angelika Fischer

The unassuming gentleman, who always dressed impeccably while strolling through Lisbon as if the Portuguese capital were his personal salon, and who was never averse to enjoying a glass of wine in a café along the way, is Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), undeniably the greatest Portuguese poet of modern times. Alongside his day job as a commercial correspondent, he created an impressively multifaceted body of work in the seclusion of his bachelor life. As a poet, essayist, and editor, he made his mark and published the futuristically influenced avant-garde magazine Orpheu - a lasting voice of literary modernity. Portugal's poetry also owes a number of invented poetic personas to his poetically diverse character, such as Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, and the assistant accountant Bernardo Soares. Alongside Pessoa's main work, significant secondary works emerged under these pseudonyms, yet still penned by Pessoa himself. This includes The Book of Disquiet, in whose fragmented thoughts the poet's intimate reflections on his nation and its people are mirrored, melancholically and poetically resurrecting the soul of Lisbon. Catrin George Ponciano follows in the footsteps of the great author through his hometown. There, it sometimes seems to her that he could turn the corner at any moment, so closely is the city intertwined with him. Lisbon is Pessoa, and Pessoa is Lisbon. Angelika Fischer visits Fernando Pessoa's residences with her camera, capturing the bars, cafés, and all the places that inspired his overflowing imagination. It is his Lisbon that she presents in atmospheric black-and-white photographs.