Hello, my name is António de Sá Fragoso, known as Toya in my
hometown of Albufeira, Algarve in Portugal. In July 2014, after suffering a car accident, I was forced
to close my pleasure boat maintenance business. Because I've always had a love of photography, I used to love taking photos everywhere I went and of everyone I met when I was in the Portuguese
Navy in '95 to 2003, where I owned a camera (and still do). Even then, I tried
to include something different in my shots. In 2020, during the infamous
pandemic and consequent lockdowns, I felt drawn to take some loose photos
again. I asked my mother for a digital camera and got my first digital photo
taken on February 17 (Canon 1300D), and I've loved my photographic journey ever since... I've been concentrating my efforts on the technical improvements that photography requires, but I never put aside what is fundamental to a photograph, what sets it apart, what is immediately noticeable because it is
unique and genuine, creativity and a unique look! What conveys the essence of the photographer! Something you simply love. I want to show the Algarve and the places I photograph how I feel. I travel around the Algarve and the Alentejo taking pictures in the hope that they will be like that. I like to highlight the Barrocal Algarvio and the
countryside, sometimes forgotten by all of us. I love photographing scenic
landscapes and yet, in the same way, I love photographing details of nature and animal life in its day-to-day life. On this site, I want to give you the opportunity to buy my
photos in digital format, so that you can use them personally, as a background image on your computer or cell phone. Or order a framed and signed photograph from me. And in doing so, travel through the Algarve countryside and coastline, and the plains and hills of Alentejo. I like people to like my photography. When I take a photograph, I take it as something that reflects something of mine, very much mine. And it's nice when someone likes something of ours! I've had the privilege of being told things like, "Istarted taking photos again because of you..." or “you haven't posted anything in a while, I've missed it..." also like "...I want to take pictures like you..." and I said "No! You must take pictures like you...!" The person looked at me in surprise, and before she could ask any more questions, I told her. "We all have something unique, something genuine, something that is exclusively ours, irreproducible! What we need to do is identify it and discover how to portray it in external form... in whatever form, be it photography, sculpture, painting, writing, music, or poetry... and no one can do that like you..." Please enjoy, because I'm happy to make them available for
you...
Toya
A long dream turned into reality
The act of creating a photograph is not just taking a snapshot. It’s about capturing a fraction of time, it’s about catching that sentiment of a glance that someone suspiciously gave a cloud wondering what it might do, as they turn the corner into a square, a glimpse as they pass by people at the café, leaning out the window to check the weather, hurrying while knowing that time waits for no man, and today is not for delays… Photography is not the printed image on its paper, it’s all that leads up to the act of capturing a moment in time. Time is said not to be physical therefore has no motion, within a frame in time there is life, yet it’s time that moves forward, and does not stand still… that’s photography...