As a marathon runner and amateur photographer, Demétrio Jereissati has taken to the streets of his home town of Fortaleza, Brazil almost daily for the past two decades. “Each morning I head out early for a run – observing and storing the city in my memory,” Jereissati says. “Every day reveals new angles and unexpected scenes. For me, these early hours are an exercise in truly seeing.”
When he took this image, in 2019, he was visiting Havana, Cuba, with friends. He headed out alone at 6am to run and as he approached the waterfront Malecón promenade, the rising sun cast a glow on the city below, and this building caught his eye. “I was drawn by the distinctive architectural lines and windows, and its condition,” he notes. “All these old, majestic buildings framed people beginning to fill the streets, and classic cars cruising back and forth.”
He took several shots on his phone, trying to capture the young man in red shorts passing by, when he was surprised by a passing car of the same colour entering the frame. “It created the perfect, eclectic scene,” Jereissati says. “When I shoot, I try to weave together my own personal vision of a place, and this shot did just that. Later, we headed to the rural town of Viñales, where tobacco is the main protagonist, but my memory of this scene, and the Cuba it captures, never fades.”
