Claudia Rocha (Porto, 1984) is a photographer specialising in interior and portrait photography, working between the United Kingdom and Portugal. With a background in architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) and a Master’s degree in Cinematography from Goldsmiths, University of London, her work explores the theme of identity, drawing on narrative and storytelling techniques to tell stories of people and explore unique spaces. It was within this context that she sought to capture the invisible: the memories and architecture that once shaped the Foco Complex, comprising the Tivoli Hotel, the Club and the Cinema Estúdio Foco.

In this series, her gaze is drawn to what remains, imagining what once was, the people who passed through these spaces, and those who, in some way, continue to inhabit them. The photographer sought to explore the architecture of Agostinho Ricca, co-authored by João Serôdio and José Carlos Magalhães Carneiro, and reveal its language. Wood, concrete and brick – materials that feature prominently in the built environment – are some of the elements that characterise the Foco Complex. As she made her way through the buildings, she explored this labyrinth full of nooks and crannies and sought out the angles where she felt the poetry of the place. She captured moments in which the architecture makes the passage of time visible, whether in the marks left on the materials, in the light that passes through the spaces, or in nature, which is slowly reclaiming territory.

The series presented in this exhibition reflects on the identity of a place and on the way in which architecture resists abandonment, surviving through memories and fragments of stories that can no longer be seen, but which can still be imagined.