Passengers

Thursday. 7:04 am. Mexico City.

Walking my dog, it's cold and my breath feels frosted. We have been traveling still through 4 seasons. As I turn round the corner of my street, enjoying my unique shot of solitude for the day, the sun kisses the high walls enclosing each of the houses of my neighborhood. Each of them feeling more secluded than usual. Only the Christmas decorations hanging here and there remind me of our lives as they were.

This place we called home, we, are about to leave.

Our extraordinary curiosity just got grounded.

Our life and usual movements were paused suddenly with COVID 19, in March 20. We were supposed to move to Sao Paulo in summer 2020 after having spent 4 years in Mexico City but the verb move took another connotation, a different color. The new page we were about to turn, was tinted by uncertainty. The pandemic not only was questioning our posture regarding our present or future but was affecting our emotions. We had to adapt and adjust our values to cope with the situation. Four foreigners in a foreign city, in a surreal situation. Each of us, copping in different ways, exploring our capacity to challenge our routine, pushing the limits of our minds beyond the walls.

Moving in the same direction, towards the light. Each of us with our own tools, our own identity.

{"Never before in history has international travel been restricted in such an extreme manner". CNBC 5 May 2020.}

I found peace and focus behind the lens of my camera. Unravelling traits and details I couldn't have seen without them. The weird feeling of excitement when capturing something so intimate as a feeling, an emotion or a corner of my house I would discover in a different light. The accumulation of pictures depicting the same mouvement, survival in every sense. Overcoming 24/7 days together, school home, a sudden menopause, fear of this unknown virus or the new beat of our routine.

Trapped in a foreign country before moving to another. Pending on the rules of over 217 countries and territories that imposed regulations during the pandemic. Getting familiar with new words such as lockdown, travel plan, social or physical distancing measures, masks and far too much soap. Everything turning into a new language that seems to be universal.

From the isolation, we were propelled into a journey filled with as many question marks as unsolvable equations. We hit Brazil end of December 2020, lost in translation of what the restrictions were there, what had we done and where were we heading. Our new refuge became our hotel room. From the horizon of trees we used to have surrounding us as a shield filled with 02, we could now observe the glittering reflections of thousands of small windows, aligned along the vertical towers of our new city.

Tuesday 1:34 pm. Sao Paulo. Nothing has changed so it seems. A new beginning? I am enjoying my walk with the dog around a new block before going back to the intensity of our life together. Everything has been simplified. Stillness has become a key to me for realizing what happiness is all about. What it means to us. What it means to me.

{Hightlights}

March to December 2020 - Mexico City

Online school

Unsual summer holidays, unusual life, living 24/7 together

Xmas at the hacienda, hasta luego Mexico

January 2021 at the hotel

Mid February moving in our new flat, boys back to school

March, everyone back home again

Repeat

{Keywords}

Move: change position, posture, place, affect with emotion, propose as resolution, solve.

Intimate: closely acquainted, familiar, close.

Transformation, Mariposa.

Dreamlike, sleeping vision, day dream.

Allow oneself to believe or think of.

Sequenced, fractured, bits

{4 main characters}

Jean-Christophe, my husband. Resolution into simple elements, rational, sensible, disciplined.

Me. Experiencing, implementing, pragmatical dreamer.

Lucas. Square and disciplined. He likes to know where he's heading.

William. Gipsy. Tawny. Wander(er), move idly, go from one place to another casually. Wind. Solar.