OUT OF RHYTHM (2013 - ...)

Life at large urban centers are grey and polluted. Green areas are lacking, and the city rhythm is always accelerated.

The work consists of photos that show a complex metropolis, São Paulo city, at overlapped images which refer to this frenetic pace.

The images were captured by analog camera from the top of high buildings, without forwarding the film, using a feature from the camera. For each frame, two to four images were overlapped, meaning that each photo is formed by at least two images.

When deciding for the film and manual overlapping, my intention was to slow down the metropolis rhythm. With an analog camera you cannot immediately see the image, besides having few clicks, making the gesture of shooting slower and more contemplative. In São Paulo city the access to the top of high buildings where the pictures were taken is very hard and time to stay there is limited. As a result, I have taken several pictures in the short period that I was allowed to stay in each building, because, for each image, I made several overlaps. So, instead of softening, I ended up by realizing that my work was speeding up due to the metropolis conditions at a completely different rhythm than I originally intended.

In one of the images, I later decided to include the negatives of films (as an outburst to the metropolis that did not let me slow down) that were discarded in the work edition.

Since 2017, I have been pursuing this work, now turning my gaze downwards and emphasizing the confrontation of green areas and cement on the sidewalks and streets of the city. As I look for what is on the ground, the analog camera ended up not being adequate, because I find these images when walking around the city and I am not always carrying the camera. This made me opt for a smartphone assuming that it would facilitate the work. But again, contrary to what I originally intended, the metropolis imposed its own rhythm on me, and the project moves at a slow pace (or beats).

… work in progress.

Technical file: a set of black and white analog pictures, printed with mineral pigments. Several dimensions, the larger with 145cm x 95cm, with margins of 2,5cm and the smallers with 45cm, with margins of 2,5cm.