lisbon at night: sibusiso bheka photographs the city’s landscape and streets after dark

the city landscape of Lisbon in sibusiso bheka’s photography

Sibusiso Bheka captures the city landscape and streets of Lisbon, Portugal, at night as part of his photography series and exhibition, Umphako. For his current artist-in-residence at La Junqueira, the South African photographer showcases his images at the residency in Belém, on view until May 2025.

His photos glimpse at his creative process: wandering around the city at night, armed with his camera and eye to spot the city landscape and subjects to focus on in the dark. After the stroll, he returns and peruses his photos. They’re cinematic and poetic, exhibiting shadow and light caught in a play.

Av. Infante Dom Henrique, Lisbon | all images courtesy of La Junqueira; photos by Sibusiso Bheka

Golden glow recurs in many of the photographer’s images

There’s a part in Sibusiso Bheka’s photography of Lisbon and its city landscape that feels unseen by the visitors. The yellow lights warp like a hazy vision in a dream as a man walks up the flight of steps. So much of this golden glow recurs in the photographer’s images. A quiet street looks alive under the ray of a lamppost, illuminating the beaten-up car parked on the side and the emptiness of the road. A child wearing an Iron Man mask plays on his own, bathed in the light past the golden hour, oblivious to the serene night cast by the purple evening behind him.

It’s quite rare for Sibusiso Bheka to have a human subject in his Lisbon photography of the city landscape and streets. In another, at least, there’s a man walking his dog. Behind him, he seems engulfed in sunset, as if he were crossing the invisible fog coming off of smokeless flames. The photographer says this is his new journey, a path where fiction, reality, and experimentation meet. Some of the warped objects in the photos hint at post-editing, but for the most part, the images are still, documented the moment he saw them. What they all share are the scenes of familiar environments, snapped at a time when no one is around to experience them in their most reflective state.

Vila Amélia Gomes, Lisbon

Umphako refers to the food prepared during travel

Umphako, the name of the exhibition, also refers to food prepared for someone when they go on long-distance travels for some time. In the South African tradition, there’s an expectation that the traveler takes and comes back with Umphako. It’s even a custom to be greeted with the question, ‘where are the provisions?’ But food here isn’t traditional. It’s about the weight of experiences, the stories lived through during the travel, the lessons learned, wrapped as blankets of memories to recall. In Sibusiso Bheka’s case, it’s a photography series that captures Lisbon.

In the city, the photographer experiments with infrared black and white imagery and techniques. He wants to see the light and shadow interact. It’s the reason light comes up at the forefront of his photos, then the shadow, creeping up, announcing itself in the portrait. The side of a house basking in red light strongly comes through before the starless sky. The mauve thunderstrikes below the dense clouds cut through the scene before the softer light, splitting the wall on the right flight of the image. They compose an orchestrated shot, reaping both the works of shadow and light at night, an allusion to the newfound Umphako of Sibusiso Bheka.

Super Mega, 2018