Vol. 9 No. 18 (2022): Essays of Geography

Largo do Sol, Ilha da Conceição, Niterói, September 27, 2021.

Another afternoon of September 27th, day of the celebration to Saint Cosme and Damian and known here at Ilha da Conceição as "Candy Getter Day". For the first time I went out on the streets of this neighborhood where I was born, grew up and caught a lot of candy, to photograph the children on the street, with their big backpacks and their hands greasy with sugar. 

I have incredible memories of my "candy days" and this date in the year 2021 was very important to me, all the mothers, aunts, and the children themselves posed for pictures and loved the fact that there was someone recording this busy day in the community. I met former teachers, relatives and former friends with their children on the street.

In the middle of the road I met a lady walking with a dog and a cat on a leash, she was dressed in an army camouflage shirt and a blood red skirt. We stopped to talk, and the lady told me that the animals love to walk, that she didn't even live in the neighborhood, and that she was also on the street to watch the children. I told her that when I was a child, I often hitchhiked on buses and vans in the neighborhood to go home to unload my backpack of sweets because I was so tired from running around all day.

As she was directing the little kitten for me to photograph, she asked me not to photograph her face. I leave here my record of this lady who provided me with such an unusual encounter and a click of someone who has walked a lot, but whom I did not expect to find on this sunny day full of children running in the street.

Canon T7, 18-55mm lens

Ariany Fernandes
Photographer 
Contact: ariany.contato@gmail.com