Factum, an exhibition by Eduardo Gageiro presented in the East Tower of the Cordoaria Nacional on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, gives shape to this publication, which brings together an extensive selection of the work of one of Portugal’s most remarkable photojournalists. The breadth and intensity of his archive provide material for a broader reflection on Portugal’s recent history and on photography as a factual index of the real, of events, and of memory, issues that emerge in the essays by Sara Antónia Matos and Pedro Faro, Sérgio Gomes, and Carlos Moedas.
“Eduardo Gageiro is one of Portugal’s most notable photographers, having not only followed the events, lifestyles, and diverse personalities of Portugal’s recent history, but who also personifies the freedom that April brought us.”
— Carlos Moedas
“Photographs recall the facta that linger in the memory and, in fact, were not even experienced by some. Thus, it would be true to say that the image and photography make it possible to construct a history of representation and a collective memory of it – an aspect that was evident in the Eduardo Gageiro exhibition.”
— Sara Antónia Matos, Pedro Faro
“We see his search for ordinary people and their world, their surroundings and their condition; his focus on manual labour; the daily life of poor neighbourhoods and, within them, the drift of impoverished children and old people, sad and toiling until death; the tragedies that hit the most disadvantaged hardest; the fervour (and violence) of demonstrations of faith; the denunciation of poverty; and a general atmosphere of weariness. Over the years, Gageiro gave us the image and expression of a country exhausted, burdened, but sprinkled here and there with the ennoblement and dignification of work or the joy of children who are content to play in the street with little in the way of toys, or simply with each other.”
— Sérgio Gomes