Right in the heart of Coimbra, Encontros de Fotografia – Associação Cultural e Recreativa continues to foster the dialogue between the city and the art of photography. Its origins date back to 1979, when a group of university students, united by a passion for photography, created the Photography Studies Centre within the “Associação Académica de Coimbra”. The project quickly gained momentum and, by 1985, under the direction of Albano Silva Pereira (now director of the Centro de Artes Visuais, in the Pátio da Inquisição), it had achieved national and international recognition. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Encontros de Fotografia established itself as one of Portugal’s most important photography festivals, hosting world-renowned names. In 2003, the festival entered a new phase. The association began focusing its activities at the Centro de Artes Visuais, developing a regular programme of exhibitions, support for emerging artists and educational initiatives. Over the years, Encontros has also built a remarkable collection, a living archive of images, stories, and perspectives that document not only the evolution of photographic art, but also the social, urban, and cultural transformations of recent decades. It is a kind of memory album, where each photograph tells a unique story. Among the many acclaimed photographers to have taken part in Encontros da Fotografia, one particularly significant figure is Robert Frank – a master of modern photography – who maintained a strong connection to the Encontros and was even honoured by António Guterres, then Prime Minister of Portugal. The association’s mission remains true to its roots: to promote and support contemporary art as a means of expression, give space to emerging voices, and encourage critical reflection on society through photography. It also brings its collection “beyond its walls”, organising exhibitions in other cities and unexpected venues around Coimbra. One such exhibition is Cave – Works from the Encontros de Fotografia Collection, curated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez, on view from July 15 to September 20, 2025, in the building “A Feira dos Móveis”, a few steps from Hotel Oslo Coimbra. The starting point was the exhibition space itself, which inspired a reflection on what exists behind the scenes of urban life: its margins, its intimate gestures, its forgotten spaces. This exhibition draws a poetic and social map, revealing youth, the outskirts, vanished landscapes and the quiet stories of everyday life, offering a multiplicity of ways to look at the territory.
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