Life in images: perceptions of the spaces in the Camboa neighborhood

Abstract

This photographic essay is the result of the author's field research in the Camboa neighborhood, in the city of São Luís -MA. The neighborhood of Camboa is located in the central part of the capital and was formed after the construction of a fabric factory in the late nineteenth century. Since its formation, Camboa has sheltered migrant families from small towns and villages in Maranhão, facilitated by the access of the Anil river that borders the neighborhood. Geographical characteristics: the river, the sea, the mangrove; will influence the spatial composition of the neighborhood, as well as its social and cultural composition.

With the construction of housing complexes, avenues, squares, the neighborhood of Camboa underwent a process of re-urbanization of its area, which leads us to think about the adaptations of small economies, sociability and ways of life present in that space. The ways of life of many Camboa residents also had rearrangements, such as small businesses and improvised gardens in ground floor apartments, reinforcement classes in the small space of the room, these are small improvisations in domestic architecture, what Cavalcanti (2007) calls a “constructive imagination”. Many Camboa residents also have a close relationship with the sea, a means of survival for many fishermen, a place of leisure for many families. This is noticeable in the images that show these traits, in the making of a fishing net, in the construction of boats in the small port, in the canoe (hull) left in the area of ​​a housing complex. Such elements conflict and at the same time transmute into a new landscape.