José Afonso Furtado was an example of intelligence and full dedication to the public service of culture. He was a scholar and a calm and determined campaigner for the promotion of books and reading, beyond the short deadline. The product of his labor and talent is very much alive, and everyone who deals with the world of books and knowledge knows how much they benefited from his contact. The work he carried out at the Art Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (1992-2012) was notable, in terms of technological modernization and the creation of the reference service, completing what he also did in the national network of municipal public libraries.
We remember his fundamental work Book Publishing and Strategic Managementwhich continues to be a reference book. Anyone who knew him knows how enthusiastic, generous, available and exhaustive he was in studying and understanding what interested him. Sharing knowledge was a source of genuine pleasure, and everyone who benefited from the knowledge he cultivated cannot forget what they owe him. But, in addition to dedicating himself to the cause of books and reading, José Afonso Furtado was an artist, a creator, with proven experience in the field of photography. His work puts him at the center of the best creation of his time. Its serene and rigorous landscapes allow for an inevitable connection to land and time. Each of his photographs forces us to carefully observe the whole and the details. It can be said that a landscape thus gains all its splendor, becoming a true dialogue between humanity and nature.
As we follow his professional path, we find the presidency of the Portuguese Institute of Books and Reading (1987-91), participation in the Superior Council of Libraries, teaching courses in documentary sciences and editorial techniques and in the subject of Sociology of Books and Reading. He participated in the National Commission for the Commemorations of the Portuguese Discoveries and was part of the Honor Committee for the National Reading Plan. As proof of the deep attention he paid to the evolution of the digital world and cultural communication, he was mentioned in 2011 in “Time” magazine as one of the most influential users of Twitter (now X). In the vast bibliography he left us, it is said What is the Book (1995), Books and Readings. New Information Ecologies (2000) or A Culture and Information for the Digital Universe (2012), in addition to Song of the Dead Children (with Clara Pinto Correia, 1989). About photography are unforgettable From Africa (with Maria Velho da Costa); The Four Rivers of Paradise (with Clara Pinto Correia and Cristina Castel-Branco); Worlds of Photography – Guidelines for Setting Up a Basic Library (with Ana Barata); Contaminations. Abandoned Mines – Photographs 1994-2009 (2019).
Emblematically, about the Book, its importance and fragility, José Afonso Furtado said in a sublime way: “In these moments of turbulence, many predictions have already failed, many dizzying phenomena have surprised the community of experts. (…) Unquestionable truths would be nothing more than a compendium of banalities. Just as others, in other times, ‘navigated without the map they made’, so now ‘men wise men had concluded / that there could only be what was already known: / forward was only what was unnavigable’, as Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen admirably wrote. It’s up to us, then, to navigate the new spaces.”
Executive administrator of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
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