Backstory on Since Yesterday the City has Changed (F. Pessoa/Lisbon)
Every collage seems to have a mind of its own; from the minute I arrived in Lisbon, this one wanted to be about views. Whether in tiled urban squares looking up at the hills, or on vaulted promontories looking down, I was enchanted by the architectural forms, Mediterranean colors, spring light, and vibrant activity in this ancient European city. And as the legendary Portuguese poet Ferdinand Pessoa wrote in the line that titles this piece, I too sensed its constant state of flux.
Devastated after a cataclysmic earthquake in 1755, Lisbon was rebuilt virtually from the ground up. The reconceived city featured wide avenues radiating from enormous squares, all paved with hand laid black and white tiles. Damaged, but still standing after the quake on the tallest of Lisbon’s seven hills, the Castle of St. George keeps watch, as it has since the 14th century. And like all of the buildings in this ancient city, it proudly wears the scars of both weather and time. This collage is an assemblage of hundreds of fragments pieced from more than 60 source images. It pays tribute to the city’s historic rebirth from the rubble, its enduring beauty, its Old-World charm--and most of all, its stunning, breathtaking vistas.