I don’t want to sound too sentimental, but this moment made me think of my family. A deep feeling of ‘saudade’, a Portuguese word to express the feeling of missing someone (or something).

It’s been almost 3 years now since I was together with all of them (dad, mom and brother). They live in Sao Paolo, Brazil, which is the city that I was born and raised - and lived for most of my life. The last time we were all together was in the end of 2018, when I visited the country for the first time since moving to Europe, and we had wonderful moments again. The plan was to visit them again in the 1st semester of 2020, but then pandemic hit.

In the moment of this photo, I was actually still figuring out my composition. It was almost a hip kind of shot. I lowered the camera, framed the way I wanted and saw this baby coming out of the shadows pushing their troller forward, almost as if we planned the whole thing. The dad followed right behind - in this shot, he’s behind one of the pillars in the shade - as the baby laughed, filling the space in that sunny and beautiful morning. A simple moment. An ordinary, but wonderful moment in the light.

Saudade. Muita saudade.

September 8th, 09:11:00, 2021. Berlin, Germany.