The digital photography collection of the Municipal Archives of Portimão
The main concern of a public archive is the preservation and access to documents. And sometimes, the desire to respond to users’ needs brings new challenges and opportunities. This was the case when compiling the digital photography collection of the municipal archives of Portimão.
In 2019, 50 years after the earthquake on the night of 28 February 1969, a researcher requested access to documentation related to this event. The quake was felt in several regions of Portugal, but it was particularly devastating in the Algarve.
We knew little more about this earthquake and were unaware of what documents existed in the archive that could be useful to the researcher. But immediately, we began our own research in the municipal archive records, looking for relevant documents or data. What we found was surprising and enriching.
In addition to hundreds of documents produced by the technical services of the town hall, we found a study entitled: ‘Prospecting, Preservation and Recovery of Notable Urban and Architectural Elements, in Urban Areas and Roadside Areas, in the Algarve Region’, also dated from 1969. This study carried out at the request of the Portuguese Ministry of Public Works at that time, contains two panoramic images of Portimão city, captured from the banks of the Arade River, and 59 photographs of buildings and streets, revealing the damage caused by the violent earthquake.
This initial set of 61 photographs inspired the idea to start a digital collection. Although the project was not immediately implemented, the need and desire to inform the community of the photos’ existence and make them accessible prevailed. More photographs were identified during the archival work, linked with the architectural projects of private and public buildings.
However, making these records public and accessible brought us several concerns. These photographs are included in administrative records and their republication could be restricted by a law regarding access to administrative documents and information (Law 68/2021 / 26 August 2021). Another concern was the poor quality of the materials used to produce the photographs and to attach them to the main project. Preservation issues were not a major concern for those who produced them.
Many images were printed on poor-quality paper, or stapled and pasted into process sheets. Besides trying to limit their degradation by using acid-free materials, we couldn’t do anything further. The photographs could not be removed from their context of production. They were there for a purpose: to prove facts, and demonstrate the situation at the time of the architectural project submission. These photographs were produced to document an event and were not produced with an artistic intention or for tourist dissemination, such as the tourist postcards, which were very popular in the 20th century.
Despite the doubts, starting a digital collection of photographs seemed like a viable solution to our desire to gather these images scattered across hundreds of architectural projects and share them with the community.
Furthermore, the photographs are relevant as they constitute an involuntary memory of the city, its heritage, and its transformation over the last seven decades. We started this digital collection in 2021. For each photograph, we noted an archival description, recording where the original is kept, as well as any information that would help identify when and where it was taken. The landscape is sometimes unrecognisable, but it is possible to identify some spaces using reference points such as buildings that still exist.
This digital collection is a work in progress and will grow as more images are identified, digitalised, and made available.
In 2022, the municipal archives of Portimão website was created. Many of these photographs are accessible there (see the link below).
The Arquivo Municipal de Portimão is located at Parque de Feiras e Exposições, R. Projectada à Caldeira do Moinho, Portimão.
www.cm-portimao.pt/menus/servicos/arquivo
Main photo: Proposal for extension of existing building in Portimão, 1958. Archive File: AMPTM/CMPTM/F-D/01/130:1958
