The other night Mateo was looking at shadows and reflections. Last night, his photo collection focused on real people, particularly females. At one point, he tried and tried to get a shot of one of the other gum sellers in the distance. I haven’t included the photo here because he’s still working on getting it.
He was also determined to get a collection of photos and videos of shy Cecilia, and most of the shots of her are when she is distracted by something else and does not know her picture has been taken.
He caught a woman sitting on the ledge outside of the window. She was howling: “munecas” as she was trying to sell us some traditional Mexican dolls she makes. He was slightly disappointed that he didn’t capture her face as she barked her words. I was happy she, like Cecilia, didn’t notice he’d snapped her photo.
Mateo got a great video of the workers in the cafe flirting behind the counter; they didn’t realize they were his subject for more than five minutes. Some of this is because we are often their subject, and they are hanging over the counters to see what the kids are up to.
He also got a couple of photos of the girl who nightly comes to visit us for a few minutes. She carries a small basket of sweets and circles the table quietly eyeing what we are up to, sometimes leaning in to see more. If she says a word, it is impossible to hear her. I think she wants to join us; I think she likes Mateo.
Cecilia also takes photos, but she insists on taking second-long videos of things like how soft someone’s hair i. I am afraid she is ahead of the times and wants the camera to capture synesthesia; we’ll have to wait for that technology.
shewhodaresnothing 