The Faces of April

Many photographers and artists took to the streets to capture images, intervene in street actions by building murals, pasting posters, and taking part in the countless demonstrations calling for the necessary changes to the social order.
The images reveal spontaneous actions without any particular aesthetic criteria as a document of a long-awaited experience.

Society was awakening to a new life, full of freedom. Feelings of joy and fraternity were shared by all those who made this revolution possible.

The proximity of anonymous and prominent figures from culture, media, and politics proves the contagious enthusiasm of the Revolution. It also beacons a new way, with a speech accessible to all and viewed as a social right.

The photographer points out strategic moments of this collective movement, in the city of Lisbon, highlighting Workers' Day in 1974 at INATEL’s Parque de Jogos 1º de Maio. He was always close to the demonstrating people and attentive to the political figures involved. The presence of others with cameras clearly shows the involvement in these memories that are now historical documents.

With a vast collection of documentary photographs, the author has preserved the memory of these ephemeral artistic events, which covered various areas of the city, now non-existent and only present in the memories of a few people. His photography managed to safeguard these works, which were sometimes contested due to their reactionary wording and the strength of their messages.

The Revolution led to a convergent cultural manifestation of artists and people, in a collective endeavour. In a fraction of time, the will to act shaped the post-revolutionary period and became its directive.

The Carnation Revolution, as it later became known, made the flower offered by florists on the day the popular symbol of the unity.