Backyard

In our culture, where basements and attics are almost non-existent in the houses, the backyard (“quintal”) is given a good deal of the uses reserved to those spaces. One of such important uses is as a deposit for objects we do not want anymore, we are no longer interested in. Abandoned in the backyard, they start to lead a suspended existence, as if in a sort of limbo. No longer used, they are neither destroyed nor disposed of definitively. They simply remain there, accumulating time strata. And, some day, they may be rediscovered, retrieved from oblivion, and have their utility reinvented or otherwise be discarded forever. The photographs comprising this series were taken this year (2009), at the backyard of the house where I was raised and lived until I was 14. Besides being a place where I could observe the type of existence led by these objects, as a child this backyard was to me a space full with mysteries, discoveries, wonder, and contact with nature. This was also the place where I took my first pictures. Now, 25 years later, I return to shoot this backyard. It is probably the most intimate, personal space I will ever photograph.