I don't know what the relationship is between doing ordinary, common things, like having to go shopping for my cats' meals, and being able to stumble upon details in my own neighbourhood that I had never been able to notice before.... In fact, if there is anything wonderful from a photographic point of view, it is just that.... A series of things that, apparently, have always been just a few metres away from me, from my home, but that I had not paid enough attention to.
Perhaps the best example I can think of to explain my surprise/wonder is to find myself in the middle of a residential area, full of high metal fences, concrete walls everywhere, from the asphalt of the streets and pavements to the facades of the houses, with a marvellous banana tree. With its fruit in full view of everyone, and without the slightest human care, as it is located in a house that has no occupants or anyone living there. Still, nature finds a way; and life flourishes (never better said than that).
These might seem to be mere frivolities I am trying to describe, but in a society with such high stress habits, with routines that give no respite and where negative emotions and risks increase daily, paying due attention to those other things that are there, is not only a pampering to a constantly hungry for more satisfying stimuli but also a necessary connection between what we ourselves are and the mother of all unions: a vibrant nature.
Along these lines, it is impossible not to notice the little animals. Some homely, that have been born and lived through human intervention. And others, that still retain that wild side, not integrated but that still can't resist curiosity. That difficult-to-explain touch between humans and animals. For better or for worse, it seems that both species know how to bond with each other... A pair of kittens with different life contexts reacting to the observant and friendly gaze of a photographer who loves to capture them as they are...
A neighbourhood as common and as normal as, most probably, yours is too. But with its own sounds. A combncon between cars getting ready to reach their work destinations. The mood of a sunny summer day that is just beginning and that has as its musical background the typical sound of birds. From small canary birds to the sound of parrots and macaws. Typical of this part of the world, but which unfortunately I have not been able to capture to show...
Probably the best proof of the integration of nature-humanity-technology is precisely the photograph I have chosen as the cover for this post. It is my neighbour's house. A kind and exemplary couple, who have had no problem letting me photograph the façade outside their house. Where we see, clearly, how the elements of this integration give logical sense; not only to this paragraph, but to the idea that I have tried to crash in this brief story. Giving as a result that air of freedom and satisfaction. A mixture that inspires a peaceful, enchanting air. Bathed in the morning sun of a Wednesday morning walk in my neighbourhood; the same one that resists to be an everyday thing and that ‘hides’ its secrets for those who really want to see them....