Open Theme nominee

At 90 years of age, the gardener lives immersed in his garden, where life is renewed and blooms every moment, where impermanence is as certain as life itself.

The garden exists since the time when his mother lived in the old house on the land, located in central neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. After the death of his wife, nine years ago, the gardener began to devote his time to the garden, nown now as Maria's Garden. It was also at this time that he began writing ballads, poetic compositions inspired by beauty of his garden, and by his longing companion.

The passionate building of his Garden of Eden is made by a daily work of meticulous care. Despite the losses and adversities of life, we do not notice any weight of mourning, on the contrary, we see a strong person well settled with life. His immersion in Eden is not escape but evocation (evocation: voluntary rescue made by memory). As the surroundings fades over time, the gardener remains eternal in Maria's Garden, renewing himself with great vitality, like his plants, and poetizing life in his ballads.

Born in 1984 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Pedro is engaged in projects that often concern people's relationship to nature and to the environment that surrounds them. Creator of the Ashaninka Photography Workshop project - a program designed to train people from the Ashaninka Indigenous community, at the Brazilian Amazon, in photography and storytelling of their own culture. Work exhibited in “What's Going On In Brazil" show, at Les Rencontres d’Arles festival, 2019 in Arles, France, and at Cri d'Amour Pour Le Brésil festival, 2018 in Paris, France. Pedro's Maria's Garden project was finalist on Magnum’s 70th Rio Workshops selection, in 2017; winner of the 2017 FotoRio Photography Festival’s prize, at Rio de Janeiro - awarded an individual exhibition in the 2018 edition of the festival (Galeria Oriente, Rio de Janeiro); exhibited at 2018 edition of Festival de La Luz, Argentina (Espacio Marcelo Gurruchaga, Buenos Aires); exhibited in Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo, Uruguay in 2019; selected for FestFoto Photography Festival in Brazil (Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre) in 2019; was second place in Paranapiacaba Photography Festival’s contest, 2019 in Paranapiacaba, Brazil and exhibited at PhotoVisa International Festival, Russia (Krasnodar Gallery, Krasnodar) as one of the shortlisted projects in 2019.