How to transcend moments? That’s the question highly linked to art, that we got the opportunity to tackle last Friday with Creative Mornings Lisbon.

How to honor the glory of the past, while subliming the present? How to balance the history of a neighborhood with its call for change?

That’s the challenge Camilla Watson made its own when she fell in love with Lisbon in 2007. As a photographer, she realised that old neighborhoods such as Mouraria were evolving so fast, that something had to be done with the elder people representing the last decades, its moments of fado and its history.

Through her “Tribute to Mouraria”, Camilla Watson focused on communities and their local histories. She used photography as a way to cover an area, represent the people who belong to it and reach out to the people who are passing by.

“I want to bring the past into the present in a way that is visual, creative and accessible to all; especially in historic neighbourhoods and in areas in a process of change.”

While she was walking in the narrow streets of Mouraria, she understood that art will happen through the walls. They will be the support of their memories, especially as they are intrinsically a lively testimonial spanning generations. 

Her mission was to turn the stories of the neighbourhood into photographies. To subtly integrate these pictures into the DNA of the area. But to do so, she had to experiment how to reveal the photographies on the old walls; and this was true art. She went from images turning into black to lasting pieces, now sticked to different parts of the streets. 

As the project was evolving, and the photographies integrating the daily path of the inhabitants, Camilla started to change the face of abandoned walls. Instead of leaving these areas as dead parts of the city, she added photographies of trees, interiors or authentic moments shared within the community. A whole new perspective.

Really, it’s fascinating to see how such a project can stimulate the memory of places, enhance a culture and sublimate moments; allowing history to carry on.