Vizinhos

Photo essay on the Gardens, residential neighborhood located in prime area of São Paulo. The images were produced by Claudia Jaguaribe Gomes de Mattos (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1955) between March and May 2020, during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). "Cities are a constant theme in my work. São Paulo, in particular, has become an important focus for its diversity. I live for many years in the Jardins (Gardens), an area of fluid limits and eclectic architecture, avenues of great commercial movement and quiet streets with the face of old. Between March and May, while taking the photos for this project, the region changed, and everything was in a waiting compass. The temperature and autumn light arrived as a shadow of silence over the empty streets. Just at the end of the day the neighborhood was heard in the noise of the panel, expressing indignation at our lack of perspective, seeking to be heard in the isolation of quarantine. Although I did not know my neighbors, I have found that, in our diversity, we have in common the same perception of this dramatic moment." --Page [2]