Botelho, shading himself from the brightness of the beauty that is Madeira. Photos: Screenshots
A few years ago, I spent a wonderful week in Portugal. I was there to cover a one-day event, but there were plans after the event was done. After the event, I basically hopped around Portugal with a handful of different surfers doing different things, all ending with enormous, four-hour dinners, way too much wine and laughter, and headaches in the morning. Along on that trip was a photographer named Andre Carvalho, one part of the incredible surf photography series called Salitre. Carvalho is one of the best photographers in all of surfing, bar none. And now, he’s got a film coming out called Abiding Madeira.
Carvalho isn’t one of those photographers whose images appear in WSL press releases. His photos feature surfing, yes, but they are closer to art than just a photo of a person on a wave. He sees beautiful moments in life that escape most of us. Sometimes the action is there, but it’s almost always not just an image of the action. And when it comes to capturing beautiful landscapes, Portugal’s Madeira Archipelago has more than most.
Abiding Madeira follows Alex Botelho as he deals with recovering from a Nazaré wipeout that very nearly was his last. Abiding Madeira might not be what you think of when you think of a surf film. Instead of featuring Botelho as a protagonist in a conflict, it shows him simply as a person moving through one of the most beautiful regions on the planet.
“Instead of pitting man against the ocean, the film shifts the gaze. Observe what happens when a body exists within a system much older than itself,” the film’s description reads. “Between sea, stone, and memory, time expands beyond the human rhythm. The island does not react, does not respond, does not adapt. It continues. What remains is not conquest, but coexistence.”
Already, Abiding Madeira has been recognized with Best Documentary and an Honorable Mention for Cinematography at the Absurd Film Festival, as well as being an Official Selection at the International New York Film Festival. See more images from the film on Instagram and stay tuned for release dates.
