São Paulo’s threshold
Abstract
“Limit” can be understood as a line dividing two spaces. The limit between two cities, for example, is a spatial border compressed to a line. “Threshold,” on the other hand, is an intermediary special zone connecting two different places. Transpositions in these transition zones occur over a more dilated time. One translation of the German word schwellen means to swell, to dilate. This research proposes, as an investigation method, to produce a photographic essay about the city of Sa?o Paulo from the concepts of grenze (limit) and schwelle (threshold), formulated by Walter Benjamin and later developed by Jeanne Marie Gagnebin. This publication is a conclusion of a year research in which, approximately 30 photographic field explorations happened, mainly at unknown places. All the images were made with an analogic black and white film, because of the dilated time that exists between capture and image appearance. Besides that, it is a familiar instrument to the researcher.
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