West 65
by Paulo Plaza
portfolio special mention call 'Urbanautica Institute Awards 2024', 2024
Category: Anthropology and Territories
The geographical base in western Portugal served to initially delimit the working territory, while at the same time referring to Western society as a whole, with connotations of the American Wild West. What were once assumed to be lasting structures, literally our buildings and infrastructures, and figuratively with the establishment of the fundamental right to housing, enshrined in article 65 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic - are now crumbling before our eyes.
Years of abandonment reflected in the scars and deformities of the territory. In the face of this fragility, he intended to portray an emerging feeling of heading towards the abyss, where our extremely individualistic Western ideals have eroded our communal identity. The space and structures inscribed in each image are personified representations of the sadness of Western society.
With our weaknesses, society is left alone, abandoned, incomplete and rejected, while we continue to build structures that stand tall for generations to come. The persistent lines and darkness through shadow denote an authoritarian and imposed struggle between darkness and light.
It is an invitation for all of us to engage with the paradoxes of our existence, so that we can confront our emotions and embrace the complexity of the human experience.
Review by URBANAUTICA
In "West 65", Paulo Plaza transforms the landscape of western Portugal into a mirror reflecting the deteriorating state of Western society. This photographic series is not merely topographical documentation—it is a psychological mapping of abandonment and loss, where geography becomes a metaphor for a fading collective identity. By delimiting his work to a specific territory while alluding to broader Western paradigms, Plaza situates the viewer at the intersection of physical decay and ideological collapse.His images operate within a visual tension between construction and disintegration. What were once signs of permanence—buildings, roads, infrastructure—now stand as ruins, ghosts of failed promises. The project’s title, referencing Article 65 of the Portuguese Constitution, which guarantees the right to housing, underscores this irony: the fundamental structures meant to support society have been left to crumble, both literally and symbolically. Plaza’s lens exposes how the Western compulsion to build, consume, and accumulate has left behind layers of waste, scarring both the land and the psyche.
Rendered in stark black and white, the photographs echo the legacy of Lewis Baltz and the New Topographics photographers, whose work similarly interrogated the consequences of consumerism on the built environment. Plaza advances this tradition with a heightened sense of melancholy and urgency. His tonal palette is gray and grainy, evoking a concrete aesthetic of disillusionment. The absence of color strips the scenes of sentimentality, placing viewers in a noir-like scenography where the dream of progress has curdled into alienation.
Ultimately, "West 65" is an invitation to confront uncomfortable truths. The abandoned spaces depicted are not empty—they are laden with the emotional residue of societal neglect. In these images, Western civilization appears isolated and exhausted, having built its own stage for a drama of decline.
also from Urbanautica Institute Awards 2024