Landscape by José Zagalo Ilharco
Photography Exhibition
Curated by Rui Pinheiro
At the Lamego Museum, as part of the Lamego and Varosa Valley Photography Biennial
From August 8 to October 28, 2024
Landscape is an exhibition made up of a selection of photographs from the family archive of José Zagalo Ilharco, an amateur photographer who left a significant oeuvre, few of which are known, in a valuable testimony to the landscapes of Portugal at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
José Zagalo Ilharco (Lamego, 1860 – Porto, 1910), an amateur photographer who won an international award for his image of the Souza River, devoted himself primarily to landscape photography, but also to the anthropology of spaces, an example of which are the images now unveiled of Porto and Matosinhos.
The reproductions of the best images he produced were put together in an album by his son Norberto de Melo Zagalo Ilharco in two volumes (1947) and, being the property of his heirs, are being made public in recognition of his legacy.
The selection presented at the Soares dos Reis National Museum includes, among originals and reproductions, mainly landscapes of Matosinhos, Leça da Palmeira, Porto and the Douro.