Fotografia Triunfo

The Shop

The transition from analogue to digital photography that has profoundly affected the photography market over the last ten years has led to the closure of many other potential Historic Shops. A small number of them survive, be it because they caught the digital wave, even if only partially, or because there is always a little niche market that will prefer silver salts and matte photo paper, people for whom film reflects a unique visual expression, or because the shop has found some other key to survival in the portraits it offers, its know-how, its specialised advice, and its archives. The latter is the case for Fotografia Triunfo. Today, in addition to all other services, it performs the role of a generational and data archive of complete portraits of all members of one family, or most of them, living in the neighbourhood. In addition to this genealogical representation, the archives also contain portraits of public figures, such as Henrique Viana, Natália Correia, António Costa, Fernando do Amaral, Macário Correia and others. The shop stores not only its only own photographic archives but also those of another shop that has since disappeared, Fotolusarte.

Before Fotografia Triunfo opened in 1952, there was a haberdashery store on the premises. The current owner began working in the shop at the young age of 12. He later received the shop from the founder, Américo Tomás da Silva, from whom he learned the trade. Films are no longer developed here, but the utensils required for that process remain. What the shop does offer is portraits – taken in a purposefully designed studio, with oil-painted sets and a small dressing room. All images produced here come with the stamp of the house, a distinctive promotional mark that is a testament to the widely recognised quality of the work it does. Many Lisbon homes no doubt have family portraits bearing the stamp. The shop interior is small but still has all the original furniture designed for the same original purposes, with the exception of the counter, which was changed at one point. In the painted wooden cabinets one can also appreciate the shop’s collection of cameras, projectors, backdrops for portraits and a number of objects that invoke choreographed gestures repeated thousands of times, though today without an audience: the punching/creasing device, enlargers, cutting/cropping tables…