Danger and Sanitation of the pandemic, mixed feelings

It was a couple of days before the government decreed the start of phase 2 of the pandemic. He had announced that it would also be the start of the 'stay at home' restriction. I decided to do a photo documentary of this unique and unforgettable situation

I had a work meeting, the last one before the confinement, on the other side of the city, which for a metropolis of more than 20 million means an hour and a half of travel and the same amount of return.

The truth is that I do not travel a lot on the subway, but this was a unique opportunity to see the city before the ban on walking freely on the street was lifted on us. I wanted to see, and if possible, portray that unique moment. I wondered if I should expose myself and board mass transit. I also doubted, though perhaps a little less, whether I should carry a camera with me. In the end I went out with my Leica by the hand.

I would be lying if I say that I was surprised to see so many people on the subway. It was a couple of days before the government decreed the start of phase 2 of the pandemic. He had announced that it would also be the start of the 'stay at home' restriction. It would also be a lie to say that I am amazed that in an almost crowded wagon only a couple of people were wearing masks. I was not one of them.

Among so many people, I didn't even open my camera, such a photo was not worth it. Suddenly the grammar of the subway was unknown to me and I began to speak of words of risk and fear. I saw many hands, tracks, voices, close people; I felt death and the virus. I got scared and got out of the car. To my surprise, at the station where I stopped I found crews of men dressed in white as urban astronauts. Sanitation brigades walked the corridors and platforms, indifferent to the people who came and went. Its almost transparent white liquid was like an antidote to danger, I felt reassured. It looked as if a group of aliens had stormed the station, mingling with billboards.

The men in white carried green weapons like pistols of the future. Others, dressed as buskers of this time, simply went masked and entered like a horde to sanitize the armored cars with simple canvases in their hands.