I had a layover in New York, as I flew back from Rio. I had this dream that I would sit down somewhere and take photos with my tripod. Well, it turned out that I first had to check the city, and check the B&H Store, then rent a camera from Adorama, then see some of my favorite museums. All while walking my feet off, like I have been doing all my life. Nothing brings me closer to myself like walking in a brand new place, thirsty for scenes, people and landscape.

The day to sit down and take photos didn’t arrive. But I mostly feel like I developed a sharp internal photo of who I was when I last was in New York, in 1999. I went to places where I went back then; I compared what I knew about the city and the country before with what I know now. I thought about what happened in between and how life goes by incredibly fast. Choices, my trajectory – they’re all mine for the good and for the bad. That unbearable lightness! Being by myself and remembering where I came from made me feel stronger and proud of my roots. In the end, I am doing something with the many pieces of jigsaw that I was given along my life – which doesn’t mean that there’s a logic to those pieces, but I want to shape them in my way, and as close as possible as to the best way that I can shape them.