Diego B. speaking:

Basically, there are many reasons why this book is important for me. First of all, this author made me understand many things of what I was doing, which was photography. It was one of the first books that I read; Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida. I believe that it opened up something that I would have never imagined, which is not so theoretical - because in the end it’s not so theoretical - but more about writing about a specific theme, in this case photography. It is mainly because of this book that I dedicated myself to what I am doing today. Later, when I was away, I came across this book without knowing anything about it. I had no doubt and bought it immediately and it has been something like 7 years.

Inside of these 7 years, that has been some stories of love and breaks up and some were more difficult than others. The book has always been like a reference to help me think about what was happening in my life and why these things were happening. This book was always one of the best options for me, in that moment that I was alone, and through this book, I tried to understand what was happening in my life.

And what is funny is that I always thought that the books belongs to the ones who read them, that they don’t belong to one person in particular, but to the ones that are using them. For that reason, I gave this book often as a present, to many people, it was my favorite thing to give as a present. But I have never given this one copy, I mean I can buy it again and give it again and in the end, when I know about this project, I don’t know why it was the first object that I thought about. I don’t know if it was because I was going through a bad moment. This book was very precious to me and I was maybe thinking in the moments that I read it randomly, without going from start to finish, more like opening any pages, and each time it would make a lot of sense to what was happening to me. 

 

And well, I don’t know, I think it’s strange also to think that it’s not an object in itself, it’s a book and in a way, it only exists when it is being read, as if it was being frozen, and it makes me sad in the end. It is as if I was canceling it, but, I don’t know, I thought that I was doing the right thing. I thought of many pictures and such, but I think that I don’t have anything more meaningful than this… I don’t know, even if you can buy a book again, after there is something in this book itself, of the company that it has been to me in these moments and that makes me think that it is worth giving it to you. And in the same time, I don’t want to stay with it, I don’t want to be a slave of these feelings.