O Impulso do Gato da Favela

The favela gives you moments you can’t script. Santa Marta rises in Rio’s South Zone on Morro Dona Marta — steep hillside, tight living, texture, light, and rainwater dripping everywhere that day.

I had wandered off during a shoot, scouting for walls and colors without straying too far from the Favela Tour I was on. Just steps away from a kid chewing his nails in the alley, I noticed this cat perched on a chipped blue ledge. Alone, still. I got close for a tight frame, backed up for a medium shot (click), then waited as a woman walked past for a wide. And right then it happened — the cat launched forward, front paws stretching, back legs still planted.

The instant the shutter closed, I knew it would become a print. One unrepeatable second, almost a year later, made permanent on the wall.

In Brazil they say cats don’t have nine lives, only seven. Protective. Lucky. Street spirits drifting through the alleys. For me, that jump was exactly that — a fleeting moment between grounded and gone.