Photographing with black and white film particularly exerts on me an uncontrollable fascination at the tinny moment between framing and clicking – a sudden and indecipherable happiness comes over me. I love the image as a whole, whether it tells about a place, a cultural custom or an unusual detail, a beautiful and unexpected detail invisible to the eye. And the magnificent CASA DA MÚSICA of Porto exerted an exceptional curiosity on me to photograph it on film. In 2006, I stood up in front of that huge “diamond” building in white cement and made some shots with my old Rolleiflex camera. Under the intense sunlight of the day, its white body, surrounded by 1900s dark three-floor granite houses, brightens at all faces, glorifying the city. It makes the Casa da Música even more resplendent. I was also allowed to photograph the building’s interior, and suddenly I was emotionally dazzled by its luminosity. The design allows the materials, Portuguese handcrafted glass and tiles, to come to life in a minimalistic architectural framework, providing a beautiful and bright symbiosis of tradition and modernity.

Today, I share some images of the exterior of this unparalleled, amazing “diamond”, built in Portugal specifically for MUSIC, which aroused extreme controversy at the time and is now beloved by the citizens.