Premises of Freedom

Sometimes, people ask me why I like these things, these mundane public transportation vehicles. In fact, I like most vehicles. From bicycles to spaceships. I like their mechanisms and their movement. In my childhood, as long as I do well in school, I’m allowed to roam freely around the city and its surroundings. And buses and streetcars and commuter trains and ferries become fascinating premises for my freedom.

Of course there are dangers on the streets – pedophiles and drugs and violent fights and blood. But we learn to deal with it and apart from a few visits to the hospital, x-rays and a few scars, things tend to end well. At night, as I flip through the pages of transportation magazines, I feel the need to take my own photos and notes of these faithful freedom companions.

I realize I need memories. Past memories, present memories, future memories – whatever. I realize this is my time and I want to make the best of it and remember and talk about it with my friends. And, for better or for worse, imagine the future. Today, I‘m grateful for the freedom I was granted as a kid. What an amazing film, still in progress, I keep in my memory.

I have no formal relationship with the operators or manufacturers depicted in my photos of public transportation vehicles. As a media professional, I've driven almost a million and a half miles so far, mostly at night. Not for once, in those endless and lonely and magical journeys, where literally everything comes to mind, I think of becoming a bus driver, a motorman, an engineer, or a master. Nope.

I just like these things. My faithful freedom companions. ●

Versão portuguesa, aqui.

Original text published in September 2014 on the IT’S ONLY BUSES website.