Sao Paulo, Brazil
October 2006

Twenty million people. Living in poverty, living in prosperity, living every moment like it’s the last, living carefully in a quest for a long life – all somehow living, finding a way to breathe in a crowded city.

At the location where this was taken in the heart of Sao Paulo, one has a 360-degree view of the city, and that’s exactly what the view is of: city. Patches of smog met the top of the buildings on the horizon. No end in sight. One could say no escape.

It may be unfair to say that Sao Paulo was gray. It wasn’t, not entirely at least, but this photo didn’t feel right in color. That’s not the Sao Paulo I remember. I’ll remember a place that’s distant, overflowing and, most of all, gray.