Nado: narrativas turvas

Abstract

The work nado: blurred narratives is a practice-based and theoretical research that culminates in the photobook nado. It is a poetic investigation that employs analog photography as both medium and creative tool to propose a blurred narrative emerging from the swimming pools of private clubs in Juiz de Fora, Brazil. The research engages in dialogue with the writings of Gaston Bachelard— particularly concerning the figure of the swimmer and the ambivalence of swimming. It also draws on the reflections of Byung-Chul Han (2016, 2021, 2017, 2022), Walter Benjamin (1994), and André Rouillé (2009), whose contributions help frame central concerns of the work, such as narrative, opacity, photography, and perception. A lifelong swimmerandfrequentvisitor to clubsandpools sincechildhood, my own experience in the water permeates and structures the work. These environments are defined not only by formal characteristics—architecture, scattered objects—but also by sensory peculiarities that transcend the visual: their air, their smell, and the social relations that take place within them.The dissertation and the photobook, as essays, seek to explore this relationship through writing and photography, without the intention of establishing a fixed truth, since incompleteness and failure lie at the core of both languages.