The idea for ​​this work came easily. When it was presented to me as a project involving gathering images by asking an audience to submit them, the first thing I remembered was the huge amount of photo albums that my grandfather has, from the time of the Ultramar (Outremer).
I found it interesting to explore something that was so striking to a close relative of mine, and at the same time was striking to so many other men and women over the past few decades. As I know some veterans, old colleagues of my grandfather, I tried to get in touch with them soon to help me collect the photos (which at first proved a little complicated but with some patience and communication I managed to achieve my goals).
The idea is to pay homage to my grandfather directly (it is the most personal side that I transpose to the work, that is, my contribution) and at the same time to honor so many others who lived the same as him (portrayed in the photos sent by the public, the external contribution, and maybe this same men). The metaphor of all memories, all stories and all of the companions (represented by the public's photos) create their image / what it is (main picture) also applies.
The title "Zé da Breda" was chosen because it was the nickname that my grandfather had during the war, and as there is the cliche of "Zé" being a typically Portuguese nickname and also very common, it is almost like a way of naming all the soldiers , "The Zés", the Portuguese men.
To conclude, I think I got a fluent communication with a good number of people, who took an interest in my work and supported with photos, sharing, inviting others, etc. and I achieved my goal, with a mosaic made from 504 different photographies.