Rua da Cabine

One of the most impressive memories of mine is the one of Cabine Street, at Lapa do Lobo. It was where I spent a great number of my school holidays, in the house, at my grandparents' grocery or at Vale do Boi, where my grandfather did his farming.

Everything changed. Today, there are no more regular meetings with friends and cousins, no family Sunday lunches, no more ball playing nor trailed trips to the field riding my grandfather's bike, no smell of Kentucky cigarettes in the tavern nor football reports, and no older people conversations nor their wine cups to be washed. The oldest grocery in the village doesn't have its former splendour. The street where it stands is but a path between houses and backyards, where footsteps are scarcer and scarcer.

Lead by an interior motivation and by means of an intimate narrative, I felt the urge to interpret this duality of strong emotions and thereby create a series of images which, besides visually exploring the concept of identity could also establish a connection between Yesterday and Today. Could there be any better word to describe this relation than Life?

The selection of photographs which shape this volume result also from both the presence and the absence of my grandfather.
To live and to perpetuate his memory has become my privilege now.

My grandfather's name was Fernando Ramos. I lost him in January 2013, already in the course of this work.

Tito Mouraz