Afonso Salcedo

Inside The Broad museum in Los Angeles, a man in a red shirt points upward while ascending a curved stairwell. A large colorful abstract painting fills the glass wall behind him. Brushed steel architecture curves around the figures.

A person in a pink shirt walks past a large-scale black silhouette wall mural by Kara Walker inside The Broad museum. The figure is dwarfed by the artwork, which spans the curved white gallery wall.

An older man seen from behind, wearing a plaid shirt, stands close to a Jasper Johns American flag painting at The Broad museum. The textured brushwork of the painting fills the frame.

Inside a white gallery at The Broad, an older man leans forward to examine a folk art-style sculpture of a figure on horseback. A museum attendant stands nearby against the blank white wall.

The Broad, downtown LA. Half the fun is watching people become part of the compositions without realizing it. The architecture curves you into everything.

A couple walks away from the camera along a tree-lined sidewalk in West Hollywood. Tall sycamore trees with pale, mottled bark form a natural canopy over the path. A Route 66 sign with a rainbow sunburst design is visible on the left, along with an LA Metro bus. Afternoon sunlight filters through the branches.

West Hollywood sycamores in the afternoon light. Even on a casual walk, LA keeps feeding the creative brain.

You don’t have to connect with every art form to respect it. Chalamet dismissing ballet and opera as things “no one cares about”, artists diminishing other artists’ work happens everywhere.

Art doesn’t need your approval to matter. It just needs to move someone.

My mom’s birthday and mine are three days apart. Went to Porto to celebrate together. Took this through the doorway while she was reading. Glad I did.

Calm, misty view of the Douro River near its mouth in Porto, Portugal. Still water reflects a pale overcast sky. Small boats moored along the right shore, low mist over the far bank. Muted, quiet tones throughout.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Douro before it meets the Atlantic. One of my last walks in Porto. After a week of big surf and busy streets, the river was completely still.

Watching the news from Iran. Thinking about the civilians, the families, and the journalists and photojournalists documenting it all so the rest of us can see what’s happening.

What an Hour of Conversation Taught Me About the Photographer I’m Becoming A podcast interview, the questions it raised, and the ones I’m still sitting with.

Wrote a companion piece to my Life of Phys episode, going deeper into the identity of living between two creative careers, and the questions I’m still sitting with.

I hope you enjoy it 🙏

Thirteen hours total to LA. Oddly productive being stuck with nothing to do but work. Doing photography outreach, catching up on emails, writing a new Substack post.

But the jet lag is arriving, and my brain is already checking out somewhere over Canada.

Ep 94 - The Architecture of Light: From Pixar to Powerful Human Stories with Afonso Salcedo Podcast Episode · The Life Of Phys · February 25 · 54m

My episode on The Life of Phys podcast is out today. We talked about moving between animation and photography, building trust before picking up a camera, and the identity work that comes with claiming your creative life. Worth a listen.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Two men on a stone quay at the mouth of the Douro River in Porto, Portugal. One holds a fishing rod, the other stands watching. Striped lighthouses visible on the breakwater in the background with a wave crashing against it. Clear sky, calm river water.

Leaving Porto today. Ending with this, two men fishing the Douro, no rush, nowhere else to be.

A good week.

Quiet empty cobblestone street in Porto with blue-tiled building on the left, shuttered storefronts, and a single figure sitting in the distance. Overcast light.

Colorful stacked facades of Porto's Ribeira district in various states of repair — pink, rust, white, yellow — with iron railings and laundry visible. An older couple stands at the green railing below, looking out.

Colorful tiled buildings on a winding Porto street corner with an orange Vespa parked against a dark doorway. Green, orange, and blue facades with iron balconies and potted plants.

Backlit cobblestone street in Porto lined with traditional buildings, iron balconies, and shops. People walking in afternoon light, construction crane visible in the distance.

Wedding couple posing against the blue-and-white azulejo tile facade of Capela das Almas in Porto. Tourists walk past on the crosswalk, some glancing over. Street signs read Rua de Santa Catarina and Fernandes Tomás.

Overhead view of a market courtyard with people scattered on wide stone stairs in the sun. Geometric metal awnings frame the left side. A seagull stands alone in the open space.

Ten miles walking through Porto. A Vespa on a tiled corner, wedding couples against azulejo walls, market stairs in full sun, then a whole street goes quiet. Every block is a different city.

Afonso Salcedo: A Cinematic Approach to Human Stories The Next Episode of The Life Of Phys Podcast

I sat down with The Life of Phys podcast to talk about the ongoing journey from animation to photography, lighting, storytelling, and reinvention. Episode drops tomorrow, Feb 25th. Really enjoyed this one.

open.substack.com/pub/thelifeo...

Rough Atlantic waves crashing against a stone breakwater at the mouth of the Douro River in Porto, Portugal. A large wave explodes behind a red-topped lighthouse on the left, nearly engulfing the jetty. A second striped lighthouse stands further along the breakwater. Layered waves fill the middle ground with sandy beach in the foreground.

Where the Douro meets the Atlantic. Waves dwarfing the lighthouses on the breakwater. Ten miles walking through Porto today, celebrating life.

This was how it began.

The calm before another storm approaches on this side of the Atlantic.

Postcards from Foz do Douro. A four-mile walk through my childhood neighborhood in Porto, Portugal.

February and everyone’s out along the Atlantic.

Wrapping up a week in Portugal soon and now DHS just suspended Global Entry and TSA PreCheck across all U.S. airports.

I fly back to LA in a few days, of course. The timing on this trip has been something else :)

Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean from an elevated balcony in Porto, Portugal. The sky gradients from deep blue through orange and coral with wispy clouds. A lighthouse glows red on a jetty in the lower left, with silhouetted buildings and warm window lights along the coastline.

Porto, Portugal. Sunset from my parents' balcony. Back visiting family, recovering from COVID and paxlovid, with jet lag that won't quit.

But the sunset light doesn't care about any of that. And the lighthouse just turns on and does its thing.

Loving these quiet morning ocean views (with seagull sounds) in Porto, Portugal.

Close-up of a vintage Studer A807 reel-to-reel tape recorder with a red reel, alongside a turntable and hi-fi audio components. Warm tones, shallow depth of field, with detailed focus on the Studer’s transport controls and VU meters.

Jet-lagged in Portugal, already shooting random things. First subject: my dad’s Studer A807 reel-to-reel and hi-fi setup. The man has taste. I have no idea what any of this means though.

Testing pixel shift on my A1ii. The detail is absurd.

I’ve lived in Los Angeles for seven years now, and I’ve traveled a whole bunch since then.

This is my second time using LAX 🤫

Richard Linklater can do no wrong to be honest. Ethan Hawke is so remarkable in this film “Blue Moon”, and completely worthy of his nomination for Best Actor.

I am always in awe of fhe simplicity and depth that Linklater brings to every project.

→ now on Netflix

Saudade - Afonso Salcedo | Los Angeles Portrait Photographer Experience a visual journey through Portugal's nostalgic beauty in this collection by LA photographer Afonso Salcedo capturing moments of saudade.

Portugal next week. Figuring out which lenses earn bag space for a trip that’s more recharge than shoot.

My Saudade gallery grows a little each visit, and I am hoping this one adds a few frames.

afonso.me/saudade

Corporate headshot session today. Weeks of prep, new gear, first time working with an assistant. Client (Sony Imageworks) was happy, day ran smooth.

More to come once images are delivered.

Tomorrow's shoot prep. Three strobes, sandbags, two cameras, private wifi router, iPad, MacBook with Capture One ready to go, 85mm GM II, and an extension cord for the charging station.

The session is the easy part.

What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either Researchers at the company are trying to understand their A.I. system’s mind—examining its neurons, running it through psychology experiments, and putting it on the therapy couch.

What a fascinating read in The New Yorker about Anthropic’s Claude and the inner workings of cognition.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

This film Sirāt is quite the journey. Nothing like an European film to shake things up.

Make sure you watch it with a good atmos sound system or theater if possible. Perhaps coincidentally, there were some quite strong Burning Man similarities 😂

Between Bad Bunny’s halftime show and watching the new Muppet Show episode on Disney+, I saw some hope in humanity.

It’s exactly what I needed, and my heart is full. Perfect end of the weekend 🥰

Weekend prep: testing lighting for a corporate session. I usually go more dramatic in the studio, so it's fun adapting to something cleaner. Sony A1 II + 85mm GMii, Godox strobes, and a very patient boyfriend.

I just put down “The Chaos Machine” after reading how social media algorithms fueled ethnic violence in Myanmar. Sounds familiar. Then I picked up my phone and opened this app. It’s not that we use these platforms. It’s that we’ve been conditioned to believe there’s no other way to reach each other.