The absence of a known element by which we can assess the scale of the object in the image and the fact that it was photographed with strong back lighting, which takes away the dimension of depth, mean that the observer is denied some of the mechanisms for perceiving reality, preventing an immediate identification of the object.

Its reduction to a sculptural silhouette with no scale is a deliberate strategy and a starting point for a reflection on the reality of photographic representation and, at the same time, for a legitimisation of other processes of meaning, echoing the observer’s imagination.

This imagination may use the title, Cena Animal [Animal Scene], to find a possible limitation to its wandering, a title that certainly finds resonance in the name Armadilha [Trap] which Lemos later gave to this photograph, which is part of the Berardo Collection, revealing the nature of the photographed object. 

José Oliveira
2022