Towards the English Channel

The subject of my photo study is the relationship between men and the environment, more particularly with water, and the sensory and even emotional changes that this relation can bring about.  I seek to unveil the imagery experienced by those who participate in this symbiosis.  I intend to transpose the viewer to that moment pictured in the photograph, sometimes in a realistic way and at times by means of cloudy images, as the vision of someone who is underwater with no goggles or mask.

Tiago Sato, the subject of this photo essay, was born in the Brazilian cerrado, where it is still possible to find people who have never seen the sea. Born in Brasilia, Tiago has turned the Paranoá Lake into his beach and it has been a year since he started this daring journey, planning to cross the 32 km that separate the cities of Dover, in England, and Calais, in the North of France.  To a resolute athlete, the challenge starts way before the crossings ground zero. It is necessary to train for years in order to accomplish this feat in about 10 hours.  This daily training routine becomes part of the athletes life in such an intense way that it is like the act of breathing.

The mixture of a primitive challenge in swimming across the distance from an island to the continent and the human contact with, and respect to, the environment constitute the scope of this photo essay.