One does not arrive at the island of Boipeba by chance: it is a destiny. And getting to it requires effort and time. Time to stay and think. Time to learn to wait.
Because time passes on the island with a special cadence, with the relentless rhythms of the tides that govern everyday actions, regulated by the dazzling light and absolute darkness, simple and natural as the wind. It is like a photograph: unique.
The day I changed my life and started living in Boipeba, in 2003, I placed aside all my remarkable ideas and let myself be guided by instinct, by nature, by the waters that never stop, by the words of native people.
I did not ask more than the island could offer me, I tried not to change it, but I started to preserve what it is extraordinary of its life.
When the natives opened me the doors of the houses, I understood that I wished to tell their stories as an epic story. What I try to do with my photographs is to protect the island's beauty, its essence. Because, after all, Boipeba is an island like many others: sea, palm trees, simple life. It is the atmosphere that is special, it is what you feel that is essential, the life of these men and women that is a permanent school.
As a profound mystery, you only have to accept the moment lived in the island, let the time enter the skin, treat it with care, live and love it. Simply. Because it is the time of the island.
My photographs are autobiographical, because Boipeba is my photographic time.
