M(ar) is a visual meditation on the permeable boundaries between body and landscape, where skin becomes sky and air turns to water. The title combines the Portuguese words ‘mar’ (sea) and ‘ar’ (air), conjuring up an in-between space where the two elements converge and merge.

The series consists of three analogue photographs: the first was taken in Porto, while the other two were taken in Greece. Despite being taken in different locations, they all have a tranquil and meditative atmosphere. This project was conceived as a visual pause: a moment to breathe, slow down, and start again. It is a moment of stillness for contemplation and inward rest.

The images are minimalist and deliberately fragmented. The theme is more of an atmosphere or temperature than a concrete figure. Photographed with natural light, the soft tones and textures invite emotional immersion rather than intellectual interpretation.

Using analogue film intensifies the images’ tactile quality, allowing imperfections and graininess to reflect the organic instability of air and sea. There is a sense of suspension, of being between inhalation and exhalation, stillness and movement, as if we were underwater. 

M(ar) was conceived as an installation comprising three large-format prints, designed to enable viewers to enter the space between the images, breathe with them, and be enveloped by their silent presence. Rather than documenting, this series aims to evoke sensations: a state of suspended calm between silence and the rhythmic, mechanical sound of the waves, like breathing.

2022