São Paulo diary – a year in pictures

Fernando Cohen documents daily life in his home city of São Paulo by uploading a photograph a day to the online forum Blipfoto.com. Here, we select a picture a month from his diary of the past year
  
  


saopaulo: Selfportrait
Friday 3 December 2010: Self-portrait

This is me in my city, with a camera, blue sky, reflected in an old truck.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: The rains
Thursday 13 January 2011: Before the rain

It rains a lot here in January, usually in the afternoon. This week has been especially rainy. I decided to use it to my benefit and got this cloud formation a few minutes after the rain had started over the city.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Wires
Thursday 24 February 2011: Wires

Wires are everywhere in my city. They are a mess, but they also have a kind of odd beauty.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Car parts wall
Wednesday 30 March 2011: Car graffiti

This wall belongs to an auto parts dealer near my house. I love this kind of graffiti.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: The mechanic
Saturday 16 April 2011: The mechanic

The man on the right is a bicycle mechanic who I've used a couple of times. He is a very nice person. His shop is behind these two doors, where he stores all bicycles and equipment, and on the sidewalk. When he is not working, he spends his day sitting on a small bench, chatting and watching the city pass by.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Sao Paulo
Thursday 5 May 2011: São Paulo

This is São Paulo, my hometown. It is one of the largest cities in the world and very multi-ethnic, with descendants of people from Italy, Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Syria, Spain, Portugal and more. I have a love-hate relationship with it. It has thousands of interesting places to go, a lot of job opportunities and interesting people. But the city grew so fast (from 70,000 habitants to 11m in 120 years) without proper planning, so pollution, traffic and floods are a major problem. This view is of Jardins, one of the fanciest areas of town.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Homeless man
Thursday 23 June 2011: Homeless

I was walking on a beautiful day and saw a homeless man sleeping on the street. I tried to photograph him in a way that would show the absurdity and the sadness of the situation, without exposing him too much.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Dog
Wednesday 20 July 2011: Dog

Even in this pathetic position, the dog was trying to look menacing.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Punk
Tuesday 2 August 2011: Punk

I love the street market – it is so full of characters.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: 300th
Monday 19 September 2011: 300th

I tried to do something with the number 300 in it to mark the 300th photograph in my diary, but couldn’t come up with anything good. So I chose this image, which represents my style of street photography.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Funny hat
Saturday 29 October 2011: Funny hat

Very sunny and hot day! The best part of it was seeing this worker's improvised sun hat.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
saopaulo: Street sweeper
Saturday 5 November 2011: City street sweeper

I admire their work and love the orange of their uniform.
Photograph: Fernando Cohen
 

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