• 3/52 •

• favourite place •

There’s no way I can just pick *one* favorite place. I can’t. I went back and forth in my head all week, trying to figure out which one I held closer to my heart, and I just couldn’t. So I went with several ones. From my Porto, to my home, to the streets of Stockholm, to bakeries in U-Bahn stations in Berlin, to the winter-lit trees at Potsdamer Platz, to the beaches of Porto Santo, to the mountains between Viana and Ponte de Lima, to the stage at Casa da Música. And just thinking of this, reading this list, makes me smile. Because I am just so. damn. lucky. I get to go so many places, I get to love (in) so many towns and restaurants and forests and mountains. I get to perform, sometimes, in really impressive showrooms, and I get to do things that make me really happy. So, if nothing else, this week’s theme made me thankful.

It’s also the cheesiest picture I’ve ever posted. But I guess that’s alright.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

10/52

"Letting go"

In 2017 I left bitterness, insecurity and lack of self-love behind. I gave up on insignificant concerns, I gave up on bothering with envy, bad wishing and bad energies.

I left everything behind, and there was nothing left to be said. I entered 2018 feeling well with myself, loving myself, and to this day this state remains the same.

I left the window open. The insignificances go, the new light and the new air come in. I will always leave this window open.

I almost forgot that leaving the house to shoot, just to shoot from myself to myself, was so good and so challenging. Neither the wind, nor the rain and cold are excuses not to do it. They never were, nor can they be.

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

Yes, it's 2019.

Yes, i eventually finished the 52 Sisterhood project, most images were never posted here, on Flickr, so i guess i am changing that.

I am not writting descriptions, giving out things the way i did over Instagram - if you care to read it there - and i will certainly not post images in a chronological order, so...that's about it.

Just a woman, posting self-portraits she did and that she cares to share here, with all of you.

• 6/52 •

• silence •

This was a hard theme, to be honest. I’m such a loud person, so talkative and noisy, that silence isn’t something I’m super familiar with. As I thought about it, I decided to go around the word in a different way; to try to portray the things that bring me silence, that bring me a much needed pause in this hyperactive brain of mine.

I’m an anxious person, I’ve always been, and most of the time, the anxiety comes as this noise in my head, this abundance of words and concepts and ideas and things that both terrify me and inspire me. And in the past few years I’ve come to realize that the one thing that makes everything go away, that makes everything around me quiet down, is to photograph. I may be incredibly nervous before I start a wedding, but the moment I take the first photo, something in me goes still. The weight of the camera in my hands, the eye half closed while the other stares into the viewfinder, the straightening of the back and the easy, calm breaths — they’re my place of solace.

What are your places of solace? What brings you the quietude you need to face the world?

[Disclaimer: the next three photos will likely only be posted after the 11th of March. From Friday on, M and I are taking trains across Europe, doing a week of Ski (god, wish me luck) and coming back by train again. We won’t have photoshop on the computer we’re bringing, so editing is out of the question. So I’ll see you soon! :) ]

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

6/52

"Silence"

Since I can remember, I've been dreaming I'm floating, on water, in space, or just floating. Floating while I sleep, inside a reality where there is no sound, no evil, no conflict. The energy is contagious, the soul is purified.

This past week I went to the movies to see "The Shape of Water". It immediately took me to what I've been dreaming all these years, and automatically I connected everything to this week's theme.

Communicating is so easy, so simple... even in silence. Everything is possible.

I like the silence. I kind of grew up in "silence". This kind of only child syndrome than allowed me to be so creative, to compose stories always in my own silence.

[There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.]

• 27/52 •

• wings •

this photo is the recreation of one I took during my first 365, in 2010! I had wanted to go back to that photo for a while (I lost the large formats of it in an unfortunate-external-drive-disaster), and this theme was perfect for it!

I'm proud of myself, this week. I had an exhausting one: I had a wedding where I was a videographer (seconding for M) for the first time (I was so nervous!), I had rehearsals, I sang at Casa d Música today, as part of a fantastic and inspiring project about music and education, I met cool people and I was just left happy, but drained. But it's sunday night and I'm still managing to post! Small victories, right?

Here's to a (slightly) calmer week, now, heh?

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

18/52

"Traveler"

Perfect timing for this week's theme.

At one of the many times I get the chance to come home, this is the time when traveling makes sense. To travel geographically, to travel and daydream, to travel and learn, to travel and be happy.

This is home, this is my favorite place to travel to.

The paper planes come as a symbol. As dreams, as ambitions I still have. How graceful they look and also how fragile, and yet yes, they fly, even if its just for a brief moment.

So this is what I came up with this week's theme. I am a traveler by heart and to the world.

And this is one of my favorite azorean landscapes.

Home.

-

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

• 5/52 •

• nightmare •

I have very vivid dreams. And nightmares, too. I can remember times when I’ve woken up laughing and times when I’ve woken up sobbing and screaming. And almost always, the nightmares are about fears and insecurities; to be alone, to be betrayed by those I love, to be left alone, to face the death of someone close, airplanes, disease. Once a week, at least, one of these suckers comes to visit, and I’m left feeling uneasy for the whole day.

So this is an easy representation of that. The loneliness, the death, the fear of being left forever by those I cherish. Alone in the woods, almost blind, unable to get out.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

9/52

"Spiritual"

Natural light, morning cold air, on a warm bed. Mind overflowing with dreams, myths and galaxies, where the protagonist is me.

This the most complete way I have to find my own spirit, here, in this corner which is so mine, so comfortable.

It's still raining outside. Oh there is such a good energy here, in this my little piece of heaven.

[There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.]

• 17/52 •

• chaos •

‘to find stillness’

The chaos, for me, is usually inside my head. It comes when I’m anxious, when I’m brimming with inspiration, when I’m sad or emotional or overwhelmed. It lurks in the darkest corners of my brain and it comes out when I need it the least.

The trick is to know how to quiet it. Love and patience and distraction usually work best, to be honest. But sometimes, the only thing that quiets the fork in the garbage disposal (thanks Chidi-from-The-Good-Place, for the perfect metaphor) is creating. Getting it all out in a photo, or in sewing, or even in cooking or baking. Just getting it out of my system. Like now.

-

The past few weeks have been both exhilarating and introspective. Is that possible?

The late beginning of Spring has brought along sunshine and warmth and that’s enough to make me a happy gal. Get that together with inspiring media (especially TV, one of my main sources of comfort and of joy when it comes to content), with kicking off the official season with pretty weddings, of many happy moments with friends and family and my love — it all leads to your Lu here feeling content and happy.

Aaaaaaand it all leads to me wanting to give back in some way and not knowing how. How I can relate my art to the issues I’m passionate about (women’s rights, LGBT rights, education) in a way that makes a difference, that helps someone. I’ve asked about it on instagram (@luminous_lu, in case you wanna follow) and I got some really great ideas about how to go about it, but I’m still not at the ‘this is it’ point. All I know is that it has to do with self-portraiture (I create best with myself as a mass to play with) and with strong, fierce womanhood. But how?

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 13/52 •

• fear [of flying] •

I won't go into a metaphysical dissertation on deep-seeded fears.

I have a very specific fear, a fear that sometimes takes over my brain and my life and activates my anxiety in ways that make me miserable — and that fear is flying.

It's been with me for most of my life, since my first flight as a six-year-old, but there have been times when I was better about it. I have been able to fly somewhat calmly, in the past. And that's why I hope I can turn this phobia around again, and be able to see all the places I want to see. Because there's oh, so much world out there to visit.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 25/52 •

• superhero •

I'm back to posting on time, y'all!

-

I spent the week thinking about this theme in very plain terms. Who are my heroes? Who are the people I admire? Who should I represent? And at some point, the thought that I should consider this topic in a more metaphorical sense hit me like a train full of stupid. Or of inspiration. Whichever you prefer.

One of the reasons I haven't been photographing like I used to eight or ten years ago has to do with my body and the way it's changed since then. You see, I grew up extremely thin. And that thinness lend itself perfectly to a certain kind of theme - the nymphette, the childish and the fairy-like. The fantasy of a woman who is tall and slender, the curves shallow and almost non existent, a prepubescent body with the face of an angel. Boobs and just the hint of a hip.

But I grew, y'all. And I discovered that with having emotional stability, it wasn't just happiness and calm that came — it was appetite. And a love for food I hadn't really fostered until then. And with that love for food came a body that is within normal parameters — not the slender, paper thin frame I had when I was depressed, not overweight by a long mile, but regular sized. Common. With a roll here and there, with thighs and hips, but arms that could still pass for a fifteen year old.

I love my body the way it is now. It has a softness I never knew before, and I feel prettier this way. But some people still have the gall to come to me and whisper meanly in my ear 'you're fat, you know?'. And not in a 'you go girl, you feel good like this', but in a 'you should be ashamed of yourself' kind of way. And while I'm normally confident, all it takes is the right person saying it to you, for you to question everything. For you to avoid the mirrors and wear the long dresses that hide everything. For you to crumble.

I'm still here. I'm still loving myself. But that was the superhero move of the week. With a lot of love and support from a lot of people (and one in particular, my darling) I'm back to feeling okay. But that was the struggle. And the people who deal with this kind of pressure every day, who have bodies that are less conventional than mine, who infuse me with the confidence I need to love myself and to love every kind of body I see around — they're my superheroes.

—

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 23/52 •

• untouchable •

I keep forgetting and I keep having to be reminded.

When it comes to light, I am invincible. I play it and I mold it and I make it mine. When I work with light, I am unstoppable. I bathe in it and I come out stronger. I'm untouchable.

I’m luminous.

—

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

11/52

"Traquility"

Only place I can re-charge properly.The only I'm sure I'll return with a clean soul.

It is in this humidity, in these tones and airs where I find tranquility, that special one that fills my soul with light.

Oh what comfort that is!

Generally known for the typical blue and green, we must not forget that Azores is also this. It is rain, humidity, mysticism and spirituality.

Islands of mist, a paradise so small and yet so grand and magical. All this greatness of seas and crossed winds, the only source of tranquility that comforts me.

I'll always come back here to my home. I'm from here, and the island never leaves me. This was such a beautiful dawn of much humidity and fog. It was one of the best days.

[There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.]

• 26/52 •

card •

‘to sustain the earth [III - the empress]’

She, who rules over men and beast; she, for whom the garden of Eden is at the tip of a finger; she, who whispers love into the artists’ ears and has them turn her love into the most beautiful of lights.

-

This theme was proposed by me and it was a TERRIBLE idea. Like, seriously.

But after a couple of false landings on a couple of concepts, I ended up going with a representation of the Empress, the fourth card of the Major Arcana of a tarot deck.

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 24/52 •

• stars •

"A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes."

- Florence + the Machine

-

You know when you go from taking 5 photos for each theme and hating them all to having 7 photos for this theme and loving them all so much you can't choose? Yeah.

I had a rough week. All of the photos I posted during it were catch ups - taken during my vacation — and I was only happy with the first one.

I knew that, but put that together with some other insecurities that will be featured in this week's theme ('stars' should have been posted last Sunday, so this is really last week's photo) and I had an incredibly hard time coming to terms with photographing myself. There were tears, there was yelling at myself and inside my car, there was a choir rehearsal where I was the most horrible person on earth (thank God for R and MJ, who put up with my bitching), there were lost lighting tripods (the most frustrating), there were studio lights and softboxes duct taped to curtain rods, there were unmade beds and there was trying to pry tulle from the claws of a cat who was probably a show girl in another life.

But here I am. And for the first time in a long time, I am truly happy with a piece I've put out. For the first time in the longest, longest time, I feel like I made created something.

—

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

14/52

"Falling"

This week I fell. I fell into the foolishness of misleading myself into the concept for this week and instead of photographing the right concept, I photographed the concept of the following week.

I had the picture ready for days.Ready to be shared today, when I realized my mistake.

In record time, I had to think fast and photograph again today.

Today, I had the time limited for everything and still, with the natural light going down quickly, I photographed and I fulfilled this week's concept.

Ideas fall on my mind every day, that's when and why I got inspired this fast. 🌠

This is certainly not the best shot of this whole challenge. But it's what this is all about, a challenge and it can not always go perfectly well.

-

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

15/52

"Free"

I can't believe I've been doing this for 15 weeks straight. I can't believe the hard working atittude I've been having towards this 52-week challenge. It's been rewarding and liberating. It has given me such a special freedom that I never knew I had.

I'm free to photograph anything. I'm free to create anything, my own world, my own utopias.

I'm free to channel my inner explorer, leave the house and find new and beautiful places.

This is living.

Just me, my camera and my own fantasies. I am as free as a bird, like I always wanted to be.

-

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

• 4/52 •

• heart •

The moment I saw the prompt for this week, heart, I thought of two concepts: the first being the tag line for my brand — “to live with an open heart” and the second, the theme of one of my favorite songs ever: “heart on my sleeve”, by Idina Menzel.

I went for the first. For the openness that comes with making new friends and letting people in — and how that was the theme of my 2017. For the times when we close ourselves off and end up losing more than we make. For the open hearts I see in my couples, the ones who pick me for their special days or for a stroll in the park with memories that stay. For the openness to help and to be there for those who need us. For how sometimes, you open up and everything comes out, all of your insides and fears and anxieties and love and tenderness and rough edges, and there’s someone on the other side to catch it, to put it all together, and to teach you to open up again. For those of you who receive my work with open hearts and shower me with words and thoughts and kindness. It’s really, really special.

(also, the photo is very similar to the one I posted two weeks ago. let's call it 'style', shall we?)

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

Week 9

After not doing last week's photo with the theme of "Crown" i didn't want to go another week without pushing myself harder in order to achieve just a mere selfportrait. It's not something that i can say i am proud of, but it works, it's there, it's one of those "push over your mental limit" moment because February was in no way a kind month when it comes to emotional matters.

Sadness aside, this week's theme is "Spiritual" and oh my, is it a hard one or what? It can be so much, i could have gone in so many different directions and yet i dwelled in the idea that spiritual for me is about light, about a moment all to myself. hidden from the world, yet in great harmomy with everything around me, with the universe.

Spiritual is a hard concept to grasp, i didn't want it to be religious, i didn't want to go with something about ghosts - though i love the idea of it - so i ended up with myself, a quiet moment and light. We are all spirits, more or less aware of it, some kinder than others, but all working together, living together, growing together. It's the spirit of a person, of a community, in the case of this project the spirit of a collective sisterhood that brought me so much, a spiritual well-being, happiness, friendship.

If that ain't wonderful I don't know what is.

We're six friends, photographers, creating an annual project through 52 weeks. If you want to join us in this adventure please use the hashtag #52sisterhoodproject and create a self-portrait around this week's theme. We can't wait to see everything!

• 7/52 •

• goddess •

Oxum esconde a beleza por baixo da coroa.

-

The next three photos will come as a triptych. They’re meant to be seen together, and they have a common thread between them: Oxum.

I’ve talked about Candomblé and Umbanda before, but I feel like I should mention that I had some doubts about doing this representation of Oxum. I’m as white and almost as privileged as one can be, and I’m from the country that squelched Umbanda to the point of its people having to worship in secret. It’s a shameful history, and I’m aware of it. On the other hand, I’ve been interested in this religion since I was a young teenager, I’ve studied it and read extensively, and I feel a very deep connection with it. And that’s what these photos are meant to represent: a connection with Oxum, the Orixá with whom I identify. Thank you for reading!

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 2/52 •

• bloom •

To flourish. To bring your best to the surface with every thing you do. To think of each and every stitch as a labor of love — and as an integral part of who you are, even if it’s crooked or imperfect. To learn how to love every detail, every nook and cranny and lump and chub and stretch mark. To be at peace with one’s being.

--

I have to say, I was excited for this theme and then I butchered it like a piece of meat. Seriously.

Call it second-week-syndrome (when the excitement of the first week has passed and you’re left with the ‘oh shit, this is for real’ feeling in your stomach), or just general lack of inspiration, but I took this photo twice, with two completely different concepts, and you’re getting the second one. Maybe one day I’ll use the other photo for something, but not now.

Either way, thank you so much for the warm welcome this project received last week! It was absolutely lovely! And if you’d wish to join us with your own 52 Weeks project, hashtag your photos #52sisterhoodchallenge in any social media outlet!

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

7/52

"Goddess"

Carriers of life, light. Fountains of emotions, tears, smiles and a lot of strength.

I do accept imperfections, curves, body changes, more or less weight. I do accept differences, bodies, personalities, personality traits. I learned to accept my condition as a woman, my own body and my soul as a whole.

I do not accept indifference amongst women at all. I do not accept the envy, bad looks, the constant comparisons and the lack of self-love. I will never accept the lack of help and companionship between women in a world where they are supposed to walk together, side by side, now more than ever.

May we all be sisters to each other. Start now!

I am a woman.

We are all goddesses.

And may we all be worshiped, just like we deserve.

[There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.]

• 21/52 •

• through the glass •

This week, I’ll be posting a self-portrait per day until Friday, so that I catch up with my #52sisterhood ladies! Keep an eye out for the next few days and hopefully, next sunday, I’ll be joining them in this week’s theme!

—

This was probably the hardest theme until now, for me. Mostly because it was the one I was most excited about since the beginning of the project — and after taking and editing six different photos (and concepts) I’m still not happy. But a time comes when you’re supposed to stop, and I’m stopping now. This was my last try and it’s the one that will stick.

I begged Mel (well, actually I only had to ask, because 1) she’s always in to help me shoot, my darling heart, and 2) she loves the damn place, too) to stay the morning in Madrid because, after already having tried three times, I wanted to go to the glass house at Retiro to give ‘through the glass’ one last chance. And we did. It was full and noisy and I freaked out a little bit until she was able to look me in the eye and ask ‘what do you want with this photo?’.

I wanted the reflection. I wanted the vintage-y feel that I think I’ve lost, or that everyone else has caught on to and therefore seems less like itself, or maybe it’s just outdated. But I wanted that feeling. What made me start photographing, the going through old photos in my grandmother’s drawer, the fingers touching rough, thick photographic paper from the seventies. The kids sitting on top of the car and my grandad holding my aunt up by her feet with just one hand. The soft, almost imperceptible blur. I wanted that feeling.

I’m not sure I ended up achieving it. But here it is.

[again, I have to thank M for being my human tripod, my source of comfort and of help when I go down the rabbit hole for photos. I'm so lucky.]

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

2 of 52.

"Bloom"

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood #52sisterhoodchallenge on Facebook and Instagram! We’re counting on you to join or follow us on this journey!

17/52

"Chaos"

It is such a chaotic world, when you feel like you're being observed by anything and everything. When you feel like you have to over analyse everything before you take the next step.

It feels like every decision was so easy to make back then.

Now it's not that simple.

Well... adulthood is a chaos, so it seems.

This is not a great portrait. Once again, I left it for last minute. This really was a stressful week in so many ways. A true chaos, inside my head.

Better days will come, I'm sure.

-

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

• 19/52 •

• drift •

This week, I’ll be posting a self-portrait per day until Friday, so that I catch up with my #52sisterhood ladies! Keep an eye out for the next few days and hopefully, next sunday, I’ll be joining them in this week’s theme!

—

To swim. To try to stay afloat.

It was a strange set of weeks. Of joy, of the relaxation of a wonderful vacation (even with a cancelled flight and us ending up turning a one hour flight into a three day car + ferryboat trip), of the sadness of the death of a friend, of trying to keep up with stress and finding new ways to manage it. A rollercoaster of emotions, wavering between knowing how absolutely lucky we are, and letting the stress and the fears and the sadness get in the way.

I haven’t quite made it back to Earth, in my heart and mind. I’m still editing vacation photos on my phone (I’m avoiding putting them on the computer, for now, to keep them from conflicting with the weddings I have to edit, with the self-portraits I’ve committed to, with all the admin work that comes from running my own business), I’m still swinging between the sense of peace and comfort of being at home, and the newness and the purpose and the joy of being on the road. It’s a delicate balance, isn’t it? And I think this photo illustrates precisely that: the strength that is necessary to swim against the current, sometimes, and (at the same time) the courage to just let it go, just allow yourself to go with the flow — to drift.

--

a million thanks to my Melanie, who was my tripod, my moral support and my best assistant during this and the next few publications. I couldn't have done it without her. <3

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

13/52

"Fear"

We all have fears, more or less. I myself have fear of spiders and boats. ​I am aware that this image has nothing to do with fear. In fact, it represents the complete oposite. In this image I see courage and evolution.​

​I opted for a concept which would include this project and what it stands for. So with this image I overcame one the my greatest fears since I started photography: to photograph in public.​ ​Ever since I started to work on photography I remember having this inexplicable shame and fear about shooting outdoors in public. Self-portraits outside? There was no way that could happen. It only happened last year for the first time and it was liberating.​ ​Today I'll take clientes into crowds if I have to and I must confess I do like the attention I get from that. Curiosity is always something very positive, at least for me and my work. ​So I went to the Peninha Sanctuary, in Sintra, on the saturday before Easter. Meaning a lot of curious turists and families, with children and their pets, passing by to admire such a beautiful view.

It was impossible to hide from the attention, specially when there is a camera on a tripod and then there's me, vulnerable, fearless.​ In minutes, nothing else mattered. It was just myself, that breathtaking view and an incredible light. Everything is so therapeutic.

People come and go, with their curious looks, smiles, whispers. Nobody judged me, nobody censured me and I photographed. Fear? What for?

So here is a represention of overcoming fears, as simple as that.

Because never in my life you'll see me photographing with spiders. Ever.

-

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

• 9/52 •

• spiritual •

I feel like a person's spirituality is one of the most intimate details of their life. We all find it differently. Some find it in churches, others in nature, others in work. Some even find it in unconventional places.

I feel like I'm my most spiritual when I'm singing or looking at art. It was a realization that occurred to me during the interrail — I felt the closest to any higher power when I was looking at the kind of art that moved me, or when I was singing. Or dancing. Not seriously, not coreographically, but in that soft sway that comes almost immediately, when my voice starts leaving my throat.

--

These three photos will come as a triptych. They’re meant to be seen together, and they have a common thread between them: Oxum.

I’ve talked about Candomblé and Umbanda before, but I feel like I should mention that I had some doubts about doing this representation of Oxum. I’m as white and almost as privileged as one can be, and I’m from the country that squelched Umbanda to the point of its people having to worship in secret. It’s a shameful history, and I’m aware of it. On the other hand, I’ve been interested in this religion since I was a young teenager, I’ve studied it and read extensively, and I feel a very deep connection with it. And that’s what these photos are meant to represent: a connection with Oxum, the Orixá with whom I identify. Thank you for reading!

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 14/52 •

• falling •

I've been looking at my early work, recently. The other day I went through my first 365, eight years ago, and while I feel no necessity to go back to those days, personally, I miss the innocence with which I photographed. I wasn't afraid of playing around, I wasn't as obsessed with consistency as I am now ('it all must stay on brand!'), I wasn't as dependent on one aesthetic. And while I was doing this specific exercise, I came across my old wings, which I hadn't used in years! So while my idea for 'falling' was a different one, initially, coming across these babies changed the concept and the execution. I went for the figure of the fallen entity, the one who loses the favor of the lord. The one who doesn't compromise.

I've been tackling more of my old aesthetic on my personal instagram, especially in the stories. The yellow high tones, the soft blur, the 70's aesthetic that drew me into this beautiful art. It's always easier to do when it doesn't stay permanently on your page — when you don't have time to get tired of it. But little steps, right? Maybe one of these days I'll be comfortable enough to embrace more than one visual, to have a more varied body of work. I'm getting there.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 22/52 •

• longing •

‘to dance with shadows’

This one was taken in Barcelona, during a rushed morning in the city before we left to drive to Madrid.

I’ve been having trouble with creativity and with this project. I seem to have sort of lost the spirit of it, the idea of regular creation to make me better, stronger at this, by letting myself fall into two holes: the hole of procrastination (and posting whenever I want to, instead of when the girls post) and the hole of mediocrity (by posting work that isn’t necessarily as deep and well-worked as it should be). So I’m struggling.

I’ve been writing, I’ve been sitting down and talking about it (I’m a talker, if you haven’t noticed), I’ve been trying to figure where my problem — this block, this inability to wow myself with my work — comes from. I have some ideas.

Some have to do with body-image and with the notion that, although I feel much better and much healthier right now, I no longer have the (skinny, almost sickly) diaphanous body of a small doll or a fairy or the kind of girl who levitates on typewriters. Some have to do with not having one of my favorite tools at hand: my studio lights — and that problem will be solved later today. Other issues come from the outside, from the judging (my own internal judgement, too), from what it will elicit in other people, or wedding clients; from the self-portrait community itself and the notion of ownership that some people, big players in this circle, tried to claim over concepts or styles that others had always used (which I know shouldn’t but still makes me uncomfortable to play with certain themes). Some other stuff I’m still working to grasp, but that I’m sure I’ll get to.

I’ll keep working, that’s for sure. Right now, I’m not happy with what I’m creating. But I’ll get there again.

[again, thanks to M for being my tripod. And my sounding board. And my biggest source of love and support.]

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 11/52 •

• tranquility •

Tranquility, for me, is intimately connected to happiness. And happiness, for me, is intimately connected to water.

Any water will do. The ocean (my warm, clear waters in Porto Santo, or the big and bursting waves of Cape Verde), the river (summertime splashes in the Douro or the Tua are my favorite!) and even showering, and the warm introspection it provides — it reinforces the knowledge that water is one of my biggest sources of joy.

Being an anxious person, I've grown used to balancing out happiness and whatever is worrying me that day. I've learned to shy away from bad thoughts and to do my best to ignore them, but if you ask me what my idea of tranquility is, the answer is always going to be the same: by the ocean. I'm so unbelievably lucky to live in a city by the sea, and be able to see a a sliver of it from our apartment — to feel the blue in the air when the wind blows from the East, and to see the clouds forming over water, to feel the sun on my face and the freckles prickling under my skin, waiting to come out. I'm never as happy as I am in the Summer, and that big blot of blue is an untouchable part of who I am. It's unbelievable, how much it affects my moods, my state of mind and my levels of calm and of peace. And how it is, in its turbulence and fervor, my place of tranquility.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 12/52 •

• recreate a painting •

For this challenge, I chose a painter who wasn't born in Porto but who lived here for most of hear life; her work fills the walls of one of my favorite museums (Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis), and I've lived with this specific painting since I was a teenager. The painter is Aurélia de Souza, and the work is 'self-portrait'.

I find it pretty self explanatory, pun intended. My first impulse, when I started to conceptualize the week's photo, was to go for my bad boy Caravaggio, and the chiaroscuro that I'm so ridiculously obsessed with. But the more I thought, the more I leaned towards choosing a self-portrait artist. Wouldn't it be wonderfully meta?

I joked around with Frida Kahlo, my favorite self-portrait artist, and then with the likes of Helena Almeida and even with Velásquez and the sly appearances behind canvases, or in forgotten reflections.

But the more I worked on this, the more I kept coming back to Aurélia. Aurélia, who filled my high school painting fantasies, for whom I wrote fanfiction when I was 16, whose sister, also an unbelievable painter, I idolized. So I picked her. And here's the result

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

5/52

"Nightmare"

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood #52sisterhoodchallenge on Facebook and Instagram! We’re counting on you to join or follow us on this journey!

• 28/52 •

• your biggest inspiration •

I started this week looking at people. Looking at the artists that inspired me, that made me create. I looked at Caravaggio, at Frida Kahlo, at Elle Moss, at Cindy Sherman, at Helena Almeida, and I wondered how I could bring them to life in a photo.

And then, on Wednesday afternoon, I landed in the hospital with a blind spot on my left field of vision.

Turns out, it wasn’t anything serious (a migraine with an aura, a family heirloom passed down by generations of headache-prone women), and my vision returned to normal after a few minutes, but the fear that it caused me has made the panic loom in the back of my mind for the past few days. And all I could think of, when I thought the blind spot could effectively mean I was going blind (I'm melodramatic, y'all), was of how I wouldn’t see color again.

That thought made me realize that most of my photos start out with this one element: color. It’s always the first thing I envision: what tone I want to be predominant in a portrait; what colors define a wedding; which kind of green or blue or yellow will bring out the happiest moment, for these people. It’s all about pigment and coloration, for me, and all about the color in my brain, not necessarily the one everyone sees. And this was the best way I could represent it. Even if it wasn’t a person or a thing; even if it wasn’t easy. It’s this.

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 31/52 •

• black •

This has been a recurring theme for me, recently: the letting go of situations and people who bring me down, who don’t bring out the best in me. Whose attitude brings a certain toxicity into my life, the kind that hooks me by the mouth (I’ve always been a chatterbox) and leaves me feeling dirty and drain and like I’m better than this. I’m better than the person being nasty and mean. But sometimes it’s hard.

It’s hard to reach a balance between being a good person, between being kind, and being run over. It’s hard to know when to speak up and be ‘the problematic one’, or when to leave the cause for another day. It’s hard to speak up when the people who should don’t listen. And it’s hard, especially hard to know when to shut the fuck up.

I’m learning. Bit by bit, I’m learning how to speak. And most of all, how to be heard.

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

8/52

"Crown"

A symbol representing power, leadership, sovereignty. We are all of this, each one of us.

We project goals and only we have the power to accomplish them, that "make it happen" that leaves us overwhelmed and caught up with endless options.

This sense of power that no matter how many times it get's broken, it still exists. It's always there.

Let them try to tear me in a thousand pieces, steal my crown, and it'll always remain in my soul and in my shadow, as a reminder that I can and will.

Oh, what a difficult topic, this week!

[There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.]

• 18/52 •

• traveler •

‘to see anew’

This was a surprisingly hard theme! I have three fully edited self-portraits for this week, but this one was the chosen for a couple of reasons: firstly, because I hadn’t done a ‘mini-me’ in forever (these ‘trees’ are 10cm tall small vases, you guys) and secondly, because it’s the first time I actually take a conceptual self-portrait with my teeny-weenie Olympus OM-D10. I bought the camera almost a year ago and have been using it as my day-to-day camera and for traveling, but I was yet to trust it enough to do a self-portrait. And you know what? It did wonderful!

But back to the theme: I’ve done a fair bit of traveling in my lifetime. And even though my pet-airplane-phobia is cramping my style a bit, on that area, there’s a feeling that comes with traveling to new places that you can’t replicate anywhere else. It’s that heat in the pit of your stomach, that pull that makes your neck hair stand on end; it’s knowing you’re about to be presented to something new, something that will open your eyes and your palate and your senses to something that will turn you around on the inside. And that’s one of the best feelings in the world.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 30/52 •

• fairytale •

When I thought of the Fairytale theme, my first instinct was to go to my old work; to the manipulations that made it look like I was flying, to the books stacked up and the butterflies in my face. And then, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to explore a different type of fairytale, more mythological, more related to Fauns and Nymphs. And that’s where this photo comes from.

It’s not my usual color palette, and I’m serious in it (something I usually shy away from, because I’m scared of the intensity of a serious portrait), like I was in last week’s, and I associate that expression with a certain growth. A letting go, of sorts, of things that were too heavy; of situations that didn’t make me feel good, of connections to people who brought out the worst in me. And in finding that seriousness, that calm, I found a side of me I didn’t know.

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

16/52

"Bloody"

"Painting the roses red

We're painting the roses red

We dare not stop or waste a drop

So let the paint be spread!"

Alice in Wonderland

A very hard topic, complicated connotation. I will always choose to reverse the more delicate, melancholic and heavy themes into a more positive symbolism.

I will always paint like this.

And now the roses are alive.

-

There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

Week 7

This week was not particulary hard when it comes to ideas, i actually had two different concepts i wanted to do but with a tendency to stumble on my love for history and art, it was quite clear which way i was headed. Despite everything I was caught with this awful flu that kicked me down into bed rest for days and even though this is very close to what i imagined it would be, it's not as complete in terms of imagary as i would have liked.

I ran after the idea of goddesses in Greek and Roman mythology, this little big love of mine, and ended up coming to focus my attention on Aurora (Roman) or Eos (Greek) for the meaning of a goddess who is less known but tha means a lot to me. Not only the break of dawn is something that always feels so magical, as the name Aurora from the Roman was a very special meaning to me - my closest friends know why - and also because the Greek equivalent Eos reminds me of...well, Canon, my tool of choice, as you might know.

I would like to bring some amazing though and debate to this week's theme...but flu is still kicking my arse real bad, so bare with me, this is all i can write for now.

We're six friends, photographers, creating an annual project through 52 weeks. If you want to join us in this adventure please use the hashtag #52sisterhoodproject and create a self-portrait around this week's theme. We can't wait to see everything!

• 20/52 •

• grateful •

Like almost all the themes that require some introspection, ‘grateful’ wasn’t an easy one.

Let me start off by saying that I am • incredibly • privileged. I have a love that fulfills me, I have a wonderful and supportive (albeit a bit insane) family, I have friends that make my life a happy, joyful place. I have the most lovely cat in the universe. I have health, a home, food and a camera to make me feel complete. I have anxieties and fears and sometimes bouts of depression, but I’ll take those as challenges that allow me to create, even if they feel horrible when I’m in the midst of them. I have a good life, and that’s not just thanks to me — but to luck, to my family and to my people.

But even with all of this, even with the rational knowledge that I am so, so lucky, gratitude isn’t always an easy plateau to reach. I’ve recently gone through an especially depressing bout of monthly hormonal misery (oh, the euphemisms) and it got me thinking about certain things, certain behaviors of mine that weren’t productive for me or for anyone around me.

I’m a complainer. I complain about everything first, and usually, after a few minutes, I’m able to stop myself in my tracks and say ‘Lu, stop being an idiot.’ I say things I regret all the time — my filter is minuscule and I often speak before I consider things, but then it’s out and it’s there for other people to see or to deal with or to embrace. And the conclusion I reached the past few weeks is that it’s easy for me to fall back into bad behaviors. It’s easy for me to look around and find threat in every move, every word. And it’s easy for me to swim in those thoughts instead of searching for positivity. I get complacent. I stop making an effort to be better than that. I allow myself to fall back into the anger and the menial jealousy and the petty thoughts that just weren’t there before.

This is up to me to change. It’s up to me to have a different attitude towards my own thoughts and my own emotions. And I’m not saying I’m able to be this zen, all-is-well kind of person. I’m not, y’all. But I also don’t want to become a hateful, mean woman. I want to be able to separate the will and the ability to let emotions out, to let things out of my system, to vent to friends and to family — and the person that I am after that, kinder and less angry at the world. Full of grace, and aware of it.

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[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

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there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

• 15/52 •

free •

[diptych]

‘to set free’

I’ve had the Letting Go photo stuck for a while. I didn’t do it in its due time and every time I looked at the document we all have with the photos we published, I’d see that hole in my column. This week, when I started to conceptualize the photo for Free, I started toying with the idea of pulling one shot into the next — and that’s how these two came to be. One for letting go, one for setting free. Both a study on guilt, on what brings us to our knees, on what makes our backs ache and our loads unbearable — and on the freedom we achieve when we learn how to integrate that guilt and to make ourselves better with it.

This one has the influence of Egyptian mythology, and how the heart was judged, upon entering the afterlife, by its weight against that of a feather. Light hearts go through, heavy hearts are thrown out and eliminated, to put it simply.

But isn’t kind of up to us, isn’t it? To be good, to change lives, and most of all to deal with the guilt of living and to transform it into something productive. That’s the goal, right? That’s what will set you free.

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[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

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there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

12/52

"Recreate a painting"

I don't know much about paintings. Or anything at all. The only paintings I'm master at are English portraits masterpieces from the Renaissance. Those I know pretty well. The stories, the history, the dates, the symbols and the meanings.

Being in the Azores, away from my props and my resources, I couldn't recreate any, unfortunately. Maybe someday I will.

So, googling around, I found this interesting portrait from Marie Bashkirtseff, called "The Umbrella", a girl wearing black, with a black umbrella and the most intriguing expression on her face. Fun fact that I discovered is the this artist's birthday is the same as mine, 24 of November! Maybe the universe was planning for me to get across this painting.

Swipe left to check out the painting. [There’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. We'll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.]

1 of 52.

"Me at the beginning"

This all started with inspiration, admiration. I still remember when I found all these 5 young women in social media, and how I loved their photography and I honestly lost count to the times I thought how I wished I was that good.

Getting all together a few months ago just reminded myself how important it is to support each other, be a friend, to help. We’re all photographer, we’re all women. So we’re in this together. Life is too short for envious acts and vicious attitudes towards each other.

I thank each one, for bringing light to my world, to my life and work. They are still inspiring to me everyday, and I am grateful I get to call them my friends. To @niacarvalho, @joanacardosophotography, @madalenatavares, @luminous, @danielafsrodrigues I just want to say, thank you.

So, here it is. there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood or #52sisterhoodchallenge.

We’re counting on you to join us on this journey! “Me in the beginning” kickstarts this year. It’s the first of 52 self portraits, exposing our origins, our emotions, our stories though what we love the most.

Self portraiture was what taught me photography the most. Countless hours in my bedroom, testing light, adjusting the camera settings, studying angles. And besides, it was and still is such a perfect way to be creative on sharing my emotions and stories.

So this is me. I decided I want to start 2018 focusing on myself, on my feminine 30 year old self. I need to take care of me first. Im vulnerable, like any one else. I am a human, I feel, I laugh, I cry. Although I have a long term relationship with dark colours and melancholic imagery, I do have a loving and caring heart.

So, yeah! Let’s do this!

#52sisterhood

#52sisterhoodchallenge

Week 11

I’ve only very recently discovered that perfect moment of quietude that in my head can perfectly be translated into tranquility. For me tranquility is a myriad of things, from emotions, to places, to moments of the day.

Fun enough i was never a morning person but mostly a night owl. However it’s in the late hours of the night or the first early hours of the morning that i find my tranquility. It’s the looking through the window to the break of dawn, the start of a new day, barefoot, holding a hot cup of coffee while the whole house is still quiet, while everyone is still sleeping.

This does make me sound like i have a house full of kids, which is far from reality as i still live in the comfort of my parents’ house but i find those quiet moments that i have just for myself to be a great way to represent tranquility.

Being myself, straight out of bed - or not - with messy hair, no make-up, nothing to do and just having time for myself, physically, mentally and emotionally, seems like the picture perfect way to represent this week’s theme.

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We're six friends, photographers, creating an annual project through 52 weeks. If you want to join us in this adventure please use the hashtag #52sisterhoodproject and create a self-portrait around this week's theme. We can't wait to see everything!

#52sisterhood

Week 15

Though this is a simple portrait, it's one of a free woman.

I don't live in an idyllic society, there's a gender gap in many ways, there's poverty, social inequality, economical issues. Yet I know i'm free. I live in one of the - possibly - freest countries in the world. I am a woman in a society where i'm not entirely limited by my gender, my religion choices or lack of them, my sexual orientation or any other. I am free. Free to follow any career i wish, attend college, get a PhD, be a mother, marry whoever i want, may it be a man or a woman. I live in a country that next week celebrates the 44th anniversary of a overall very peaceful revolution that ended a dictatorial regime that had been established since 1933 and ended on April 25th 1974.

I was born into freedom, into established human rights, into a place where i can be who i want, want i want, do and say what i please - with knowing that my freedom cannot put other's to risk or harm - and i know i am a very privileged person and woman for many reasons, including the free country where i was born and where i still live.

This is a portrait of a free person. May it always be that way.

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I love the idea of symbolism, of creating a tale with props, symbols, light and stories. Also i love to go through a simpler path sometimes and this was a last minute interpretation of the past week's theme, "Free".

- We're six friends, photographers, creating an annual project through 52 weeks. If you want to join us in this adventure please use the hashtag #52sisterhoodproject and create a self-portrait around this week's theme. We can't wait to see everything!

• 10/52 •

letting go •

[diptych]

‘to let go’

I’ve had the Letting Go photo stuck for a while. I didn’t do it in its due time and every time I looked at the document we all have with the photos we published, I’d see that hole in my column. This week, when I started to conceptualize the photo for Free, I started toying with the idea of pulling one shot into the next — and that’s how these two came to be. One for letting go, one for setting free. Both a study on guilt, on what brings us to our knees, on what makes our backs ache and our loads unbearable — and on the freedom we achieve when we learn how to integrate that guilt and to make ourselves better with it.

--

[ somos seis, amigas e fotógrafas, a fazer um '52 semanas' em conjunto. publicaremos semanalmente nas nossas redes sociais, e podem seguir-nos através da hashtag #52sisterhood. caso se queiram juntar a nós, podem usar a hashtag #52sisterhoodchallenge! contamos convosco desse lado, nesta aventura! vamos lá!

-

there’s six of us, friends and photographers, doing a '52 weeks’ project together. we’ll publish every week, and you can keep up with us through the hashtag #52sisterhood. If you’d like to join us, you can use the #52sisterhoodchallenge! we’re counting on you to join us on this journey! come along! ]

Week 12 - Recreate a Painting

Recreation of Getting Out of Bed by Berthe Morisot.

1885-86. Impressionism. Oil on canvas.

My oh my, it's Monday and I'm posting what I should have posted yesterday. I guess i needed that extra day and the three hours crying session over deciding what paint i would eventually recreate.

Painting is something very close to me, a passion of sorts, from painting myself to some sort of adoration for the masters of painting i have learn about through the years when studying - and loving - History of Art. Both paintings and painters are something that I can fangirl about like crazy, so when this week's theme popped up i went on a frenzy because picking up just one work from one master painter was, in my own view, an impossible task.

I put Caravaggio aside, as much as i love him i tend to dwell in the safety i feel working around him, his amazing use of light and darkness and his moody tones. Then i knew i couldn't go with Artemesia Gentileschi either, after all she's pretty much the female equivalent of the first. Also, in my first years of college i worked a whole lot around John William Waterhouse, even doing a re-creation of the so famous Ophelia, so there i was with another out of my list.

That was when i came to realise two things. First i would turn into Impressionism, another one of my great loves, and secondly i wanted to portray and re-create a painting of a female artist, portraying a woman in the painting. That's when i remembered the lovely Berthe Morisot, those soft tones, the depiction of such natural, calm moments of her life and the life of other women.

Berthe was recognised, still in life, by her works, exhibiting them side by side with masters such as Manet, Cézanne, Degas, Monet and even Renoir. That is something, that as a woman myself, I aspire to, to be recognised during life, to have my work sided with those of other men and women and be an equal in what i do compared to all of them.

I could have gone in a million different direction with this theme, i could have done Renaissance, Baroque, Raphaelite, Surrealism, but in the end Impressionism won and i guess now that i look at this it feels as right as it could ever be. I am happy, truly happy with this one.

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We're six friends, photographers, creating an annual project through 52 weeks. If you want to join us in this adventure please use the hashtag #52sisterhoodproject and create a self-portrait around this week's theme. We can't wait to see everything!

Week 10

Sometimes it’s all it takes, letting go of things that weight us down, things that can’t happen.

A personal and intricate feeling that we return to in so many moments of our lives. As deep or as shallow as letting go of something might be, they are always necessary.

This week i ended up letting go of a bigger picture i had envisioned for this theme. Sometimes one has to do it, as hard as it may be.

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We're six friends, photographers, creating an annual project through 52 weeks. If you want to join us in this adventure please use the hashtag #52sisterhoodproject and create a self-portrait around this week's theme. We can't wait to see everything!