Signature Room by Nuno André Ferreira

The project “Raízes e Marés” explores the duality between what once was and what remains. As a photojournalist, my work has always been about capturing the moment with precision and speed, but this series called for a different approach. I decided to move away from digital and return to the analogue process, with the aim of making this experience more personal and timeless. The black-and-white photographs reveal the scars on the landscape and invite the viewer into a dialogue about the fragility of nature and the passage of time.

The Leiria Pine Forest, with its vast expanse and history, has been a source of wealth, sustenance and protection for the region – a landscape shaped by the forces of nature and by human hands. The tragedy of the wildfires devastated the forest, profoundly altering the relationship between the pine forest and the local communities. This photographic series seeks to reflect the impact of this loss, using the Atlantic Ocean, which embraces the region, as a symbol of permanence and renewal.

Each photograph reveals the landscape as it stands today, without concealing the scars of the fire, whilst at the same time evoking what the Leiria Pine Forest has represented over the centuries. The solitary trees, the dense shadows and the fields that have emerged from the ashes take on new forms and meanings in black and white. The choice of analogue photography, with its texture and grain, lends depth to these images, transporting us to an almost dreamlike reality, where the present and the past coexist in the same space.

Rather than depicting destruction, this series celebrates resilience and the cycle of nature. The absence of colour is intentional: by removing the immediacy of realism, the images become visual reflections, allowing the viewer to project their own memories and experiences onto the landscape depicted. Black and white captures something beyond the visible – the memory of what the pine forest once was and the hope that it may one day be reborn.

As such, this collection of images becomes more than just decoration for a hotel room. It invites every visitor to become part of the history of the Leiria Pine Forest, to reflect on the relationship between humankind and nature and, above all, to realise that, even in loss, there is beauty and strength in renewal.