Tiago Casanova: “The Pearl of Atlantic” – Subjective Relationship Between Beauty and Uglyness

Tiago Casanova studied Architecture at Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade do Porto, where he was one of the founders of Scopio - International Photography Magazine in 2010. He was also one of the founders of the XYZ Books Publishing house and Bookshop in 2013, A ILHA (Gallery and Art Space) in 2014, and Estúdio Bulhufas in 2017.

Portugal – 

Pearl* – “Hard object that grows around a grain of sand or other foreign matter as a defensive measure of certain molluscules.”

Pearl by Photography  feature – Tiago Casanova is a project and book about Madeira Island, nicknamed as “The Pearl of the Atlantic”, a highly touristic place known for its Nature and its unique Laurisilva Forests. Madeira suffered countless transformations on its landscapes since its discovery on the XV century, being this project an analogy on how a pearl is created: a natural defensive reaction to external objects, in this case, introduced by Man.


Tiago Casanova_64


I was intrigued by this phenomenon of natural transformation of a living being through the creation of a non-living hard object, that turns out to be a very rare and valuable object, referenced as an example of beauty. So, how subjective can beauty get when a bizarre defensive measure turns out to be a model of beauty?

This book is about this relation between the subjective senses of beauty and uglyness and how the line between both senses is so thin and insignificante, working on this specific place, the Pearl of the Atlantic.

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