The board of trustees of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation expressed sorrow over the passing of José Afonso Furtado in a message shared.
Editor and writer Francisco José Viegas, a former Secretary of State for Culture, bade farewell to José Afonso Furtado, “to whom the life of books and libraries in Portugal owes so much,” in a post on the social media platform X.
José Afonso Furtado was recognized as a pioneering figure in Portugal on the same social network, becoming one of the most active national users during its early years. He was listed among the best Twitter accounts of 2011 by the American magazine Time.
“José Afonso Furtado is the Borges of Twitter, a Portuguese librarian who brings his pure love for all things related to books and publishing to the Twitterverse,” the magazine wrote at the time.
Born in 1953 in Alcobaça, José Afonso Furtado graduated with a degree in Philosophy from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Lisbon in 1976 and studied Photography at the Portuguese Institute of Photography from 1981 to 1984, directing the History of Photography course, according to his biography provided by the Gulbenkian Foundation and information available on Infopédia.
According to the foundation, Furtado served as deputy director-general of the Directorate-General for Cultural Action, president of the Portuguese Institute of Books and Reading, a member of the Higher Council of Portuguese Libraries, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Portuguese Photography Center.
He led the Art Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 1992 to 2011, being “responsible for the technological modernization of the library and the creation of the reference service.”
The Gulbenkian Foundation also noted that “as a photographer, he is represented in various collections, both private and public,” such as the Center for Photographic Studies in Coimbra, the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne, and the National Library of France.
