The three terms that I took into consideration when looking for what I wanted to explore were OBSERVE, SEEK, and CHALLENGE. These terms really helped me decide what exactly I wanted to and how I wanted to do it.

Although my final decision was hard, I am certain that I want to produce a project that address’s heritage. Growing up, I knew I was different from all the other Jersey born kids in my school. My food was different, my lifestyle was different and my holidays looked different. Hearing my classmates say that they were going to all these exotic places whilst my holidays were returning to my home country, which to my younger self was not holidays, was devastating. However I can now admit that visiting my home country every year is not only a blessing but something that I look forward to every year and although I used to think that Jersey had nothing to do with me, a Portuguese citizen, I soon realised that many Portuguese people migrated to Jersey which meant that I was exposed to the Portuguese culture more than I thought I would be. This doesn’t mean that I feel somewhat connected to my Portuguese side, so exploring heritage through my photography is important to me because I want feel more connected to my Portuguese nationality and culture.

I want to feel connected to the disconnected.

Sometimes returning to Madeira felt depressing. I felt like I didn’t belong there, like I didn’t have just as much rights as the people who have lived there their entire lives. Being constantly called English by relatives who lived in Madeira was really annoying. In some way, I actually started to kind of believe that I was English, my nationality was English and so was my culture. What was most frustrating was when someone asked me about a place or thing in Madeira, and I had no clue what they were talking about because I was stripped away from my home at such a young age that the only thing that felt familiar was places and things related to Jersey. I was so clueless about my own country and that was embarrassing. That said, as I grow up, I realise that I’m not that lost about my country, I know more about Madeira than I thought I did. I am more connected that I thought, but not enough.

I want to explore Madeira in more depth, I want to seek comfort, I want to find aspects that define Madeira. I want to zoom in and appreciate things and places in Madeira that I often overlook or ignore. I want to know what makes me ‘Madeiran’. And most importantly I want to discover my heritage and be able to tell a story through photography. I want to challenge myself in terms of defining what heritage means to me. I want to observe Madeira, and be able to clearly know what Madeira means to me.

I want to develop my project by capturing images of places, things, objects, people or even moments that to me feel like connecting to my heritage, my identity. I will have sections in my project to distinguish the story I want to tell which will be separated by a Madeira flag or something that says Madeira. These sections will be clear and evident which should show that there is different sections to the project. For an example in section 1 I will have images of objects or things that to me are seen as something that is connected to my culture/heritage. Like Portuguese dolls, dresses and traditional toys and objects. Then section 2 will be about the people that to me remind me of my heritage, are important to me and that make me feel bonded to Madeira. Then finally section 3 will be about places and moments that are important or significant to me.

I will begin my study a week or two before Christmas holidays where I will take pictures of traditional Portuguese aspects, like Portuguese clothing, objects and more. I also intend to photograph images from the past of when I was younger. These images are perfect for my project as it shows what it was like growing up as a Portuguese child in a English island. Some of these images will be produced in a studio and a natural setting, like outside or a garden. Then during Christmas holidays, I’m staying in Madeira so I will also produce images in Madeira and take advantage of the fact that i’m in my home country where everything is authentic in terms of heritage and the Portuguese culture. I will stay there for nearly 3 weeks and during these weeks I will create my images in my home town, Estreito, Camera De Lobos, in my own home and other parishes I will visit etc…Funchal, Curral das Freiras and more. I will still continue to produce images when I return to Jersey as there is things that I have in Jersey that still remind me of my heritage.

When it comes to editing, I will use lightroom and Photoshop to enhance and edit my images. I intend to make most of my images in black and white, especially images from the past. I plan to use Photoshop to experiment and create images for my final product. These experiments can be like placing an image from the past on top of Portuguese texture or tiles or selecting parts of an image that shows Portuguese patterns and placing the cut out on top of a portrait or landscape.

inspirations etc artist refrence