Walscak and Freire | thinkingaboutphoto

Irmina Walczak & Sávio Freire

Portraits for Yayá

Some people say that it is the children that choose who their parents will be. That our paths cross in order to promote spiritual growth for all involved and, therefore, we gradually build entire lineages and help each other out in our mutual challenges. With the arrival of Yasmin in 2011, we clearly entered this vital movement and decided to open ourselves to it.

From that moment on, the perception that our greatest asset is time became the horizon of our choices. We've opted for more experiences, for an unhurried daily life, for presence and closeness. However, to trace a path of our own means to walk uncharted lands, to dive deep into our own fragility, to put ourselves at the disposal of error, or better saying, of the lesson to be learned. It has been a challenge to keep the balance between tradition, intuition and creativity while forging ourselves as parents experiencing a new universe.

Photography has reemerged in our lives in the middle of this (re)discovering and experimenting. Amidst processes like prolonged breast-feeding or bed-sharing, which were as desired as they were demanding, photography has been the thread that connects moments of the present, intensely experienced, with a future that will indeed carry their memory. In a world where photography gives itself to communication, we've envisioned the creation of a document of our life within family; and identity reference for our children Yasmin and Kajetan; an imagetic heritage that is expressed in the very title of the project - Portraits for Yayá.

The images impressed on these pages were taken between 2012 and 2016, mostly at our home in Brasília. Some of the photos that were originally in this project did not make it to the book, a choice that reflects the idea that an excess of images can result in a lack of memory. We've chosen the ones that might transcend our own outlook as parents and allow for others to recognize themselves in our story.

Finally, this is our homage to a free childhood; free from TV, technology and consumerism; a childhood that is respected in its space and time, that is made of playfulness and human warmth; a childhood that allows us to carry into adulthood the levity and wisdom of those who Rubem Alves, Brazilian writer, has called "beings of pleasure".

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