POETICS

 

assignment: “Photograph your site from the perspective of rhetorical expression, both your own and the implied and implicit expression of those who live in or use the site. Review the photographs you have already taken in light of this topic.”

location: Ponta Verde neighborhood, Maceió, Brazil

A long, weathered yellow bench sits on an empty Sunday sidewalk.
On a weekday, a seat on the yellow bench presents this "interior" view of a vendor's cart. The vendor offers sugarcane juice (caldo de cana), coconuts and coconut water, fresh pastries, both sweet and savory, and various candies and snacks.
The baseline mundaneness of the sidewalk is visible in the distance, but the cart's burst of activity and curated color is evident in the foreground. The vendor's primary goods, sugarcane and coconuts, offer green. Everything else, from the bench to
The vendor, introducing himself as "Antônio do Caldo de Cana," fishes his record book out from the depths of his cart. Here he notes the incremental purchases of about thirty cart regulars, having them settle their about once a month by credit card o
When presented with my surreptitious photo of his cart, Antônio urgently retrieves his phone from his pocket. Where I saw a presentation of Brazilian blue, yellow, and green, he sees an awaiting canvas. Antônio has ordered the design of a decal kit f
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A CART IN THE DAY IN THE LIFE