Alfredo Cunha, the photographer that the revolution did not let sleep

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On April 25, 1974, Alfredo Cunha I was 20 years old recently. On that day, a young photojournalist from the newspaper “O Século” did the most important job of his entire life: He didn’t go home for three days. During those days and the following, he never stopped photographing the revolution that was happening in the streets.

Today, the photos she took are considered one of the most important testimonies of what the poet Sophia de Mello Breyner called the “early, whole and clear day.”

“I left work at night and, when I got home, my mother told me that there was a revolution. I went back to the newspaper again and took photos. I went to the newspaper “O Século”, where I worked, and I went to take photos”, says Cunha.

An iconic portrait

Among the photographs he took that day, one became special. It remained unpublished for 20 years and in 1994, on the 20th anniversary of the revolution, it was published by the newspaper “Público” together with an editorial entitled “The captain’s gaze” and became iconic: It is the portrait of the captain Mayan Willow.

“This portrait, some consider it to be the portrait of the 25th of April. I think it’s a portrait of Salgueiro Maia, nothing more than that, but it takes us to a point where man becomes the myth. That’s it. that people see in this portrait.”

Another photo shows a group of young people behind a cordon of soldiers. It’s also one of Cunha’s favorites: This is a portrait of our youth,” he says.

“It’s a partial portrait, since there are no women, but it shows us the state of mind on that day. How we were, how we dressed, how we had our hair, whether it was a multiracial society or not. And it was. I think that this is a portrait in which, if we zoom in between these two faces (that of the soldier who smokes and that of the young black man behind), it’s all Portugal in the 70s”.

Exhibitions across the country

Alfredo Cunha is holding a series of exhibitions across the country with the title “April 25, 1974, Thursday”. Euronews visited the opening of the Almadabut this is also evident in the Amateurin Braga and in other locations. Cunha also published a book with the same name, in collaboration with the artist Vhils and with texts from Fernando Rosas, Carlos Matos Gomes It is Adelino Gomes.

Also in Almada, in the shipyards of Lisnavethere is a series of works by various artists made from Cunha’s photos: They are new interpretations of the history that the photographer helped to document.

Video editor • Bruno Filipe Figueiredo Da Silva