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Tito Mouraz

Tito Mouraz creates a series called 'The House of the Seven Women' investigates the world of magic and witchcraft. It's based around a house in Portugal, where the photographer comes from, that is rumoured to be haunted by seven sisters. It's believed that one of these sisters is a witch and when full moon came they would all dress in white dresses and fly to a chestnut tree to 'roost', and seduce men who walked by. The images by Mouraz shows all these rumoured aspects and creates a mysterious yet magical feeling.

Mouraz said ‘In The House of the Seven Ladies, chatting, getting to know what it was like before me, listening and imagining were as important as the act of photographing,’, which I can understand because I too felt it was important to understand the cultural and historical importance of what I was shooting before I actually went to shoot.

He started taking portraits because  "they have always lived here and are attached to the land just like trees...They speak about time, about their memories, their losses ... many of them already dress in black"


This image shows one of the bewitched and 'seduced' man by the women. The foreground being so prominent and taking a large proportion of the image makes it feel like I, as the audience, am the women looking on at the man. It makes me feel hidden, or as previously said, nesting. The man has a slight side smile on his face which could suggest that he's been seduced. However his frown combined with this smile makes him look a little confused, maybe even unimpressed.
The black and white makes the image feel dated, while also combining all the elements together smoothly. The contrast helps the different elements of the image stopping from merging into each other.


Although the image before this was rather stalker-ish, this image has a much creepier, mysterious feeling. It poses many questions for the viewer to think about, such as who is this woman? Why has she got a blanket over her head? why is she standing in the middle of the field? Because of these unanswered questions I tend to feel uneasy when looking at the woman, especially as she appears to look straight into the camera and looking at me, yet I can't look back.
There is no separation between foreground and the subject like the first image, it feels very raw and confrontational. There's nothing to hide behind and so as the viewer we're forced to confront this figure.

‘This series gives an account of a persistent return to the same place, so as to scrutinise its differences (the slow deactivation of agricultural practices, the gradual transformation of the territory, ageing ...), in spite of listening to the same owl, the same fox, the same stories’ - Tito Mouraz

This quote reminds me of the work by Jem Southam and Mike Garton who kept returning to the same place and watched it change, becoming obsessed with how it looked and the changes the forest went through. 


This image to me demonstrates the sense of mystery surrounding the location, as well as showing the viewer where these women flew to. It's a part of the narrative and rumours that keep this tale alive. The mystery is formed by the fog which obstructs the viewer from seeing further into the forest, however at the top of the image we see more branches and so we know that the trees continue into the frame. The fog therefore obstructs not the viewer knowing what landscape is beyond the trees but rather what stands with the trees on the ground. This is a much more frightening concept than the landscape itself being unknown as there are a number of physical threats that we associate with the forests, namely large animals and strange people. This series is, however, about 'strange' people and so it's rather fitting. Th sense of mystery is further escalated by the way the trees clearly start in the ground but we never see the top. They reach throughout the image and surpasses the frame, and so the viewer knows they're not seeing the whole picture as one. This feels like a segment of a landscape and we as the viewer cannot see beyond what we're shown.

This series really makes me almost relieved that I've persisted in taking photos of one location and getting to know it. Because although his series offers a lot of different locations he also took these photos over a longer period of time and noted it was important to understand the landscape and get a feel for it.

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