Cheira bem,Cheira a Lisboa Homenagem fotogrรกfica aos Lisboetas
Preface
I think that before i write down my ideas about this project, i have to introduce myself. So, i am Marilena, i am greek, i did my Erasmus in Lisbon like 3 years ago, i study architecture, i am almost an architect and i am totally in love with Lisbon. For now these informations are enough. Now it’s time to tell you the experiences that i gained from Lisbon and some stories that i am always saying to different people when they are asking me about Lisbon. It was Monday night around 10 o’clock. I was bored at my house so i decided to go to cycle. My house was in Cais do Sodré. I went down to the street and i started my ride. I follow Rua do Arsenal until the Arc at Rua Augusta. The streets were almost empty. Few people were walking around but it was easy to cycle on the pavements without annoying anyone. I turn right to Rua Augusta and i continue cycling. At Rua Augusta i saw an old woman on a wheel chair outside from Fashion Museum. I was extremely surprised when the woman started to clap. It was for me! She was clapping because i was cycling... After a while a young woman started to clap for me too. She was accompanied the old lady. They were smiling at me and i was smiling back. When i passed in front of them the told me “Boa noite”, while they were still clapping. I told them also boa noite and i continue cycling. At the rest of my ride i was thinking how is possible that a woman that lives in the most inappropriate city for people with moving disabilities, she was clapping for me that i was just cycling in a city that is inappropriate for the bikers too, but they are two totally different things that they are not even comparable. This happened like three years ago but i still remember this amazing lady. I come back to Lisbon after one year for a research that i was doing back then and some of my greek friends happened to be at the same time in Lisbon, so we met to show them around. We were at the center, near to Rossio so i told to my friend to go to see Casa do
Alentejo. She liked a lot the place, she took some pictures and i was waiting for her at the top of the stairs. After a while a man, around 50 years old, entered the building and when he saw me he opened his arms and i did the same thing. He reached the top of stairs and we started to talk. We were speaking in portuguese( yes i know portuguese but i am not so cofident to write in portuguese, so i prefered to write in english this preface, so my friend couldn’t understand what we were talking about. After two minutes we kissed goodnight and i left with friend. Then, she turned to me and she asked me “Marilena who is this guy” and i told her “I have no idea. He just wanted to say hi.” Another time i was with a portuguese friend of mine around Bairro. We went to hung out a little bit to Santa Catarina’s miradouro. We sat down and next to us was a guy, who was totally drunk. I didn’t pay attetion to him, but my friend started to speak to him. I was thinking what she is doing, but i didnt pay more attention because i wanted to enjoy the view of the river. I dived into my thoughts and i didnt even listen what they were talking. After 10 minutes the guy left and he was a little bit cheered up. Then, my friend started to tell me the guy’s story. The guy had a girlfriend in Porto. That day was her birthday and he missed that last train to Porto to go to see her and he was extremely sad. That person wanted someone to talk for his personal “drama” and my friend was there for a person that she didnt know, that a lot of people wouldn’t speak to him because he was totally drunk and in the end she made him feel better. These are just few stories of the ones that i can narrate to you. These incidents show me how nice the portuguese people are. They are affectionate, kind, willing to help. At least this is the image that i have from the Lisboetas. So, Lisboetas inspired me to propose this project named “Cheira bem! Cheira a Lisboa! Homenagem fotográfica aos Lisboetas”. This is going to be a book full of people’s photos and full of people’s stories. Stories of love, stories of life, sad stories, happy stories, anything that anyone would like to share with me. I learned
a lot of things from portuguese people and from Lisbon. Lisbon teach me to be a better architect and to appreciate the simple things that can make you happy and portuguese people teach me to be a better person, so the only thing that i can do to give somehow back this affection, is to make a book for them. A book full of dreams, of experiences, of human relationships, of ideas, of beautiful people. This pdf is full of pictures that i captured during my walks around the city and they are some of the pictures, which inspired me to do this project. I can´t write a story about the persons of the photos but i have in my mind my story for these persons, just by looking the photo and knowing what they were doing when i took their picture. I am not going to write it because everyone has a different story to listen from each picture. So, open your eyes, open your ears and let each picture to narrate your story.