Loving and hating São Paulo

São Paulo, the ultimate megacity, is a city of contrasts. I feel great affection for the city just as much as I loathe it. Sure, it is a cliché, but as I approach nearly two months living in one of the world´s largest cities with roughly 20 million inhabitants, I must admit that my relationship with the city has developed into a love-hate relationship.

I arrived in São Paulo with an ambivalent attitude, feeling lost in the giant metropolis and scrambling to try and find my bearings. Part of me wanted to go back to Curitiba, the pleasant capital city of Paraná province, with its pleasant parks, smaller size, and already some promising contacts in the Chinese community. But I knew that São Paulo was the big prize of Brazil, where tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants have flocked to over the past couple decades. How I was going to tap into this community was a challenge, quite honestly, I wasn´t sure I was capable of meeting.

My experiences in the city are reflective of these conflicting feelings, contrasting environments. Within my project, I have been able to witness and follow many strands within the Chinese community -- everything from living in a Buddhist temple to watching the Chinese mafia sing karaoke. I´ve followed both the Taiwanese and mainland communities -- which share as many similarities as differences.

There are many things I love about this city -- the amazing music, the multitude of cultural events available every day and nearly every hour, the vitality of the city. Of course, I´ve also seen the dark underside of the city: the violence, the fear and suspicion, the coldness that great cities seem to create from too many humans living too close to one another. I think whatever your feelings are about São Paulo, like any great photo, it will make you feel something. Maybe it is disgust, maybe joy, maybe anger.

I´ve got two more days left in São Paulo, and over these two days (and probably more), I´m sure I´ll be thinking a lot about all that has transpired here, and over these past five (FIVE!!!) months in South America. Five months have gone by remarkably quickly, but at the same time my arrival in Lima, Peru, seems like lightyears ago.

Sadly, I´m now on my third camera (first one stolen, second one broken and in the U.S. being fixed). On the other hand, I think my photography has improved a lot, and my hair has grown to a previously unimaginable length.