The photo session in Faro was by far the longest I did for this project. I’ve met there with the teacher and dancer Filipa Rodrigues and I had the opportunity to photograph two of her classes of students from the dance conservatory in Faro. Since Faro is quite far from Porto, I decided to stay two days to make my travel more productive. And it was well worth it 🙂 I photographed about twenty dance students in the historic center of Faro, and even the weather helped. I also had the opportunity to visit the beautiful theater of Lethes where I could also photograph the fantastic teacher Filipa Rodrigues and two of her most advanced students: Rita Valadas and Vasco Gomes.

Faro is a municipality and the southernmost city and seat of the district of the same name, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, with a population of 118,000 inhabitants (in 2011) making it the biggest city in the Algarve and one of the biggest in Southern Portugal. The first settlements date from the fourth century BC, during the period of Phoenician colonisation of the western Mediterranean. At the time, the area was known as Ossonoba, and was the most important urban centre of southern Portugal and commercial port for agricultural products, fish, and minerals. The nature park is considered one of the seven natural wonders of Portugal, with a beach that is around 7km from the downtown. It includes the river and a lagoon system, interspersed with dunes, forming a small islands and peninsulas, that protect a large area of marshes, channels, and islets. Annually, many species of aquatic migratory birds transient northern Europe and nest there during the winter. These include flamingos, terns, pied avocets, Eurasion wigeons, common chaffinches, etc.