After selecting various short stories of Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s national poet, Richard Câmara created a complete story which he later illustrated. The result is 25 illustrations with a pop flavour, all based on an equal number of short poems by Pessoa, that are on show at the Casa Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon, from June 5 to August 28, 2008. The exhibition is titled Pessoa POPular and gives everyone a great opportunity to get to know a few things about the life and work of this great poet.
More than 70 years separate the stories written by the poet and the re-interpretation by Richard Câmara. With a fresh look that highlights all the dimensions of Pessoa’s work, images and converse between the pop and the popular, the enigma and the sense of humor. This is a Pessoa that we should rediscover.
Richard Câmara was born in Brussels, lived in Milan, Rome and Lisbon. Spending much of his childhood in different African countries, he decided to study architecture, but very early started to draw and publish comics and illustrations for a living. Since 1995 he has been working for newspapers, magazines, exhibitions, publishers and advertising agencies. In 2006, he moved to Madrid, Spain, and his work can be seen on-line on his blog.