Cláudia, Fernando Lemos’ first wife, is holding a Japanese parasol and gazing, absorbed, at the ground. Only the hand holding the accessory is visible and we are shown her face and upper torso in close up, like the inside of a chrysalis that has just opened up.

The outline of the head and the parasol appear concentrically, in perfect continuity of one another, as though they were a tailored fit. Continuing beyond the edges of the photograph, the perimeter of the light-coloured parasol and the length of each of its ribs are only partially visible: the accessory occupies the space of the image with the strength of a circumference, the texture of its many radii, the symbolism of its protective function and the elegance that mirrors that of the person sheltering beneath it, probably from the sun.

Leonor Nazaré
Curator at the CAM