Patrícia Mamona is a Portuguese triple jumper. In October 2018, two years away from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which were then postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic), I started visiting Patrícia’s training sessions at Centro de Alto Rendimento do Jamor in Lisbon. We had a simple arrangement: I could film or photograph without restrictions as long as she didn’t have to interrupt any of the exercises. Her discretion and focus made me feel almost invisible, as I either anticipated some of her exercises or was overtaken by others.
Her lonely and repetitive training routine involves a careful balancing act of the body and mind, juggling determination and ambition with exhaustion and anxiety, often being months away from any competition.
As she enters the training ground, Patrícia knows that she is her only competitor.
It was a long and complicit process that lasted until September 2021, a month after she won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, setting a new personal and national record of 15.01 meters.
José Pedro Cortes
Patrícia is the portrait of a solitary performer, of the body and mind at work.
Throughout the book we feel the experience of the training routine of an Olympic athlete, as we watch, in a parallel montage, a sequence of images of her winning jump at the Tokyo Olympics.
Patrícia
Published by Pierre von Kleist editions, 2023
15.1x21 cm, hardcover with dust jacket, 184 pages
Buy it at www.pierrevonkleist.com
A Necessary Realism
Published by Pierre von Kleist editions / MNAC - Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, 2018
19x26.5 cm, Softcover with dust jacket, 240 pages, 148 images
Conversation between José Pedro Cortes and Nuno Crespo
Essays by Nuno Crespo, Shoair Mavlian, David Santos, Julião Sarmento and José Tolentino Mendonça
Buy it at www.pierrevonkleist.com
One's Own Arena
Published by Pierre von Kleist editions, 2015
Hardcover, 30.5 x 22.5 cm, 168 pages
Buy the book here
One’s Own Arena is the final moment in a trilogy, after Things Here and Things Still to Come (2011) and Costa (2013).
This time the territory is Toyama, Japan
Costa
José Pedro Cortes
Pierre von Kleist editions, 2013
Softcover, 80 pag., 21x30.5 cm
14 kms south from Lisboa, where I live, is Costa da Caparica. During the last years I often found myself returning to this magnetic place.
José Pedro Cortes
Costa da Caparica is a place, south of Lisboa - a strip of land that exists between the last stretch of civilisation and the beach.
In COSTA, we wander through this territory: shacks, outmoded architecture, remains of houses, dirt left by the tide; an agglomeration of sand, vegetation and streets – a peripheral, end-of-the-line location. We are flooded by a strange luminosity; a dazzling and mysterious light which imbues these spaces with a disconcerting and unreal atmosphere, like something seen while in a hypnotic state.
José Pedro Cortes
Pierre von Kleist editions, 2013
Softcover, 80 pag., 21x30.5 cm
14 kms south from Lisboa, where I live, is Costa da Caparica. During the last years I often found myself returning to this magnetic place.
José Pedro Cortes
Costa da Caparica is a place, south of Lisboa - a strip of land that exists between the last stretch of civilisation and the beach.
In COSTA, we wander through this territory: shacks, outmoded architecture, remains of houses, dirt left by the tide; an agglomeration of sand, vegetation and streets – a peripheral, end-of-the-line location. We are flooded by a strange luminosity; a dazzling and mysterious light which imbues these spaces with a disconcerting and unreal atmosphere, like something seen while in a hypnotic state.
Things Here and Things Still to Come
José Pedro Cortes
Pierre von Kleist editions, 2011
Hardcover, 116 pages, 24.5 x 31 cm
During nine months I lived in Tel Aviv. During this period I met four young Jewish women who were born in the USA. They had all decided, at the age of 18, to go to Israel to do the military service. After completing the required two years of service, they decided to stay and live in this idyllic Middle Eastern city.
José Pedro Cortes
Included in Photobook: A History Vol.III by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger.
José Pedro Cortes
Pierre von Kleist editions, 2011
Hardcover, 116 pages, 24.5 x 31 cm
During nine months I lived in Tel Aviv. During this period I met four young Jewish women who were born in the USA. They had all decided, at the age of 18, to go to Israel to do the military service. After completing the required two years of service, they decided to stay and live in this idyllic Middle Eastern city.
José Pedro Cortes
Included in Photobook: A History Vol.III by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger.