Lisbon’s back-alley fado legends – photo essay

A portrait of Lisbon, saudade and the fado folk music of the city and its relationship with tourism. Henri Kisielewski is the 2019 recipient of the Joan Wakelin bursary, administrated in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society

Fado is Lisbon’s urban folk music, born in and around the brothels, alleyways and ​tascas ​of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods. Fado is to Lisbon what the Blues are to the Delta. Written records trace it back to the early 19th century, though some argue it is much older, connecting it to oral traditions imported from across the Portuguese empire.

At the heart of fado is ​saudade.​ This elusive word – apparently untranslatable from the original Portuguese – broadly refers to a sense of sorrow, of yearning, and a resigned desire for what once was. This is the underlying emotion of all fado and perhaps of Lisbon itself.

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Li Zhensheng, photographer of China’s Cultural Revolution, dies

Former publisher announces death of Li, known for his book Red-Color News Soldier

The Chinese photographer Li Zhensheng, known for his unflinching portrayal of China’s Cultural Revolution, has died, according to his former publisher.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, which in 2018 published the first Chinese-language edition of Li’s book Red-Color News Soldier – a compilation of photos he had hidden from the period – said Li, 79, had died after spending several days in hospital following a brain haemorrhage.

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Color is not a crime: New York’s Black Lives Matter street art

Across the US, artists have responded to the death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests with impactful and urgent work. In New York, artworks have appeared supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and remembering the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and Eric Garner

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Cafe culture returns to France after lockdown – in pictures

In Paris, contented customers sit outside cafes and sip their morning espressos for the first time in 11 weeks. There are, however, strict rules: bars and restaurants have permission to sprawl across pavements but tables must be 1m apart. In the rest of France, customers can now be served inside while maintaining the same distance

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Picturing lockdown: Historic England’s archive of isolation – in pictures

Today, Historic England reveals 200 new images which have been added to their archive to form the Picturing Lockdown Collection. This follows a call-out asking the public to photograph their lockdown from 29 April to 5 May. The appeal was the first time the public have been asked to submit photographs for the archive since the Second World War.

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