William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the photography pioneers, wrote in his book “The Pencil of Nature,” in 1844, that the process he invented produced photographic images printed “by nature’s hand.”

With the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Garden and its diversity as a starting point, and based on the idea that nature can imprint itself through the action of light, participants will be invited to explore the space, get to know some of the most emblematic species whose properties can be explored through different photographic processes, and produce a series of images in which the conventional use of cameras is replaced by exploring the attributes of various botanical specimens present in the Garden. The results will be gathered in a small album, like an exploratory diary of both the photographic processes themselves and the space where they will be developed.

Each workshop will begin with an exploratory walk through the garden, while particularly focusing on a more or less emblematic plant that will be used as the subject of the workshop.