roams

In this set we present photographs taken in 2014 created with digital cameras used by 5 years and eleven months old children and younger who attend the Gabriel Prestes EMEI |1 in the Consolação neighborhood, in São Paulo’s central region. At the time I was welcomed institutionally by Naime and Mônica, managers and all teachers and other professionals. These images are a result of the project “Olhar sobre a cidade: fotografia e desenho na construção de imagens sobre São Paulo a partir das escolas municipais de educação infantil” |2. The goal of the project was to think about the city from the photographic records made by the children. As we dwell over the images produced, they instigate us to keep thinking in a two way manner: they waken the curiosity to learn from them, the photograph itself, and it’s content make us think about other contents not presented. We can assert that it is possible to comprehend through photography. The camera is an instrument that abilitate discoveries and gains importance in the hand of the children by the records made, by the subjects approached, by the processes created and motivations derived by that.

The Garbriel Prestes EMEI have a seminal work that concerns the proposition of walks with the children beyond the school walls, whose objective is to take the territory frequented and constructed by them.

The photographs in this set were produced on the paths from the EMEI to the children’s houses and back with digital cameras, which they were able to keep for many days, as well as choose themes, make themselves busy with it and see their potentialities, to photograph. This process resulted in many records of the city from what it brings us from graffiti, popular manifestations, local shops, mirrors of cars and street lights, from viaduct junctions. They give us ideas about the history of the city and it’s everyday life at this time. The shots constructed register street experiences, they evoke the outside and the inside in consonance and can say a lot to whomever leans to understand them.

1| EMEI: Escola Municipal de Educação Infantil, lit. Children Education Municipal School.

2| lit. View over the city: photography and drawing in the construction of images about São Paulo from the municipal children schools.