Lúcia, 2008

Lúcia, 2008. From the series, Asilo.
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I have been thinking more and more about the B-side photographs. There are the obvious good pictures, the ones that get shown more, while the other pictures from a series are kind of forgotten. But these runners up can be my favorite because they hold the experience of being there. As I have mentioned here before, my Asilo series are pictures taken in and around a senior center in Caconde, Brazil. (Asilo is aylum in portuguese). In my Dec 2nd post, I showed the photographs of the empty building that would be the new center but I also spent a good amount of time in the old center with it’s community of seniors, mental patients and outcasts.
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I fell in love with Lúcia who sat alone most of the day facing out her broken window. It is one of my favorite photographs that transcends the place itself. What you don’t see in that picture are the three men outside her room standing by their doors with a shaft of the last light of the day. Her courtiers, I imagined. And what you don’t hear is the ambient sound of the asilo teeming with life of the other occupants, some yelling, talking and in this case the gentleman playing his guitar and singing. Today, as a special, I have for you the sound of the man playing his guitar. I have always looked to the picture of Lúcia as a solitary figure facing the light, but that might be my visual bias. How do I know she is not actually listening?