Madeira Airport in Analog
Nuno Serrão
Shortlist
Constructions like this can only happen when human need and ingenuity meet engineering and architecture. Rising from imposing cliffs above the Atlantic, Madeira Airport represents that rare harmony where architectural vision transforms geographical limitations into remarkable possibility.
Considered one of the most important infrastructures on Madeira Island, it allows islanders to feel less isolated from the outer world. The airport exists as both concrete reality and emotional necessity, a bridge, a connection, a way out and a way to return.
This analog series explores the airport not merely as functional architecture, but as a symbolic threshold where arrival and departure create a perpetual state of transition. Through the contemplative nature of medium format film, these images reveal the dialogue between the island's rugged natural landscape and the bold architectural intervention that defies it.
For Madeirans, the airport embodies a profound duality: simultaneously connecting and defining the boundaries of island life. In these frames, architectural determination meets cliff face, capturing those moments where human design and natural beauty coexist in purposeful tension.