The work of Virgilio Ferreira from Portugal gives a sense of the city, the night, and the culture in a really interesting push pull of our attention.

“This project was developed in 2006 in some Asian cities: Bangkok, Macao, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo. In all of them, territory and behaviour are changing fast.

Cities seem to mirror our state of mind and reveal secrets that can be decoded when minute details are looked at: it is between the lines that I seek ambiguities and contradictions.

In an intuitive and random way, I walk by the streets and let myself be attracted by lights, colours, scenes, anonymous people that cross my way and whom I invite to pose.

Portraits are made very quickly but, in a rigorous and selective approach, I look to relate person and background.

As focus and unfocus create tension, the unfocused faces turning into fleeting masks. This information deficit catches the eye of the observer and makes the portrayee stand out, also adding enigma; anonymity is always intriguing.

The images without people contextualise and engage in dialogue with the portraits; they are emotional atmospheres and decoding games.”