Maputo Bay– Zé, which translates into "Joe," who only gave his first name, has a morning bath on the beach in Maputo. Before coming to Mozambique three months ago, I was living in Lisbon, Portugal and had the idea of doing a project the "Marginal," a highway which ran along the Atlantic coast from Lisbon to Cascais. It never materialized although I did photograph a good deal. Upon arriving here, I immediately started spending time on Maputo's much smaller Avenida de Marginal. The attraction the nautical Portuguese had to Lorenço Marques, Maputo's colonial name, is clear. Mozambicans here have a much more spiritual relationship with the ocean that I hope to explore during my time living here.
I know this type of project has been done before, but one thing I've come to terms with over many years is that so has just about everything else. Two similar projects that come to my mind in the States are on Pacific Coast Highway which runs up the coast from California to Washington, and another on U.S. 41 which runs along Florida's west coast. My feeling is that individual points of view and vision produces unique work-like the innovative Romans. If I was more cynical, I'd have tossed my gear into the Indian Ocean after seeing Sebastião Salgado's book Africa which my wife gave me as a Christmas gift. One double edged sword for me in doing projects is that I usually get other ideas (which is good) and become sidetracked, unfocused and distracted (bad). I was good at steering others as an editor, but not so much alone.
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