© Ana Marta, Untitled, from the series Palm Trees don’t belong here, Porto Santo, Portugal, 2012
© Ana Marta, Untitled, from the series Palm Trees don’t belong here, Porto Santo, Portugal, 2012
© Ana Marta, Untitled, from the series Palm Trees don’t belong here, Porto Santo, Portugal, 2012
© Ana Marta, Untitled, from the series Palm Trees don’t belong here, Porto Santo, Portugal, 2012
“Porto Santo is a summer tourist destination on the island of Madeira, appreciated for its natural resources, particularly for its beaches. However, in winter, this fascinating place is forgotten and left to cry (…) The title “Palm Trees don’t belong here” is a metaphor for the occupation of the territory and the marks left by humans in nature.
The Palm Tree, an exotic imported species, is a counterpoint to the Dragon Tree, a local indigenous species and one of the symbols of Porto Santo. The work focuses on the control and occupation of a space with its geographic, physical, social and economic limitations.”
Ana Marta’s statement
Despite her young age, Ana Marta has been working with photography for more than a decade. During these last few years, the expected mutations of a path made out of enthusiasm and discovery, have given way to a strong aesthetic and a very cohesive evolution in the way she is learning to deal with her subjects.
Today, the way in which Ana Marta merges social matters with a careful composition of the landscape where they belong denotes the same careful way with which she observes the world and the place each occupies in it.
In the coming years, I would expect Ana Marta’s craftiness and courage will help her portray, report, denounce and add content to our visual realm. The documentary style can be redundant, and so can be working in series, though here we will not run that risk given that these images now made cautiously will soon become fearless and turn out to be what they were always meant to…
by Sofia Silva
The rest of the series can be seen here
N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 