In Focus | Rio's Carnival 2013

Photo © Felipe Dana/AP-All Rights Reserved

In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic is on a roll. Following its featuring of the 2013 Sony World Photo Awards a few days ago, it now features gorgeous photographs of Rio's Carnival of 2013.

In Rio, more than 72,000 spectators watched the spectacle of samba school floats, dancers, and extravagant costumes during Carnival. More people took part in the numerous street parties, dancing and drinking for hours.

Attending Rio's Carnival is on my bucket list for as long as I remember. While living in Barcelona many years ago, I saw a beautiful billboard with an advert for Varig (at the time the only international airlines in Brazil) encouraging people to travel to Rio for the Carnival....and this reminded in me of my appreciation for Brazilian music...mostly bossa nova and samba. Some years before, I had watched -more than once- the French movie 'Un Homme Une Femme"whose one of its songs was the beautiful Samba Saravah (aka Samba da Bencao by the legendary Vinicius de Moraes), and even before that, I would listen to the music of Baden Powell, Stan Getz, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil...and of course, Joao Gilberto.

Carnival was introduced by the Portuguese to Brazil around 1850. The elite settlers from Europe would throw class and custom aside, dressing in the poorer clothing of commoners, while the commoners donned the fine garments of royalty. Native Brazilians eventually joined the festivities, and early 20th century, the beats of the samba joined the melting pot of music from several European cultures.

Brazil's ArcaPress Collective

I usually don't mention photographers collective on this blog, but I found that ArcaPress (started in May of 2010) which highlights Brazilian culture and covering such areas as religion, indigenous people, economic issues, urban reality, environment and wildlife.

I was particularly drawn to Between Faith And Fever by Guy Veloso, and Maracatu by Celso Oliviera.

Maracatu is the name of performance genres found in northeastern Brazil and in its northeastern state of Ceará. Maracatu describes the music style that accompanies these performances. Maracatu has close ties to Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies, and these performances are secular manifestations of these cults.

The Ashaninka: Mike Goldwater

Photo © Mike Goldwater-All Rights Reserved

In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic magazine, featured The Ashaninka, A Threatened Way of Life; photographs by Mike Goldwater. Be sure to view the photographs in the 1280px option if your monitor allows it.

The Ashaninka are an indigenous people living in the rain forests of Peru and in the State of Acre of Brazil, and are one of the largest indigenous groups in South America. Their number is estimated between 25,000 and 45,000.

Current threats are from oil companies, drug traffickers, colonists, illegal lumberers, illegal roads, conservation groups, missionary groups, and diseases. Roads are being built into the forest to extract mahogany and cedar trees for export to markets in the United States and Europe despite an international embargo. Religious missionary groups are intent on changing Ashaninka culture and belief systems, ignoring the impact on their long term survival.

Mike Goldwater is a photographer, who ran the Half Moon Gallery in London's East End from 1974 to 1980, and who created the magazine "Camerawork". He also co-founded photo agency 'Network Photographers' for photojournalism, documentary photography and corporate work.  He traveled to over 70 countries and his images were published in major magazines around the world.

You may also wish to see Tatiana Cardeal's work on South American indigenous people.

Antonio Mari: Candomble

Photo © Antonio Mari-All Rights Reserved

Here's the work of Antonio Mari, US-Brazilian photographer living in both countries, and specializing in ethnophotography. His work appeared in the New York Times, The New York Post, Newsday, Gannett Newspapers, Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Veja Magazine (Brazil), Time Magazine, Science Magazine and the Boston Globe, as well as Geo Magazine (Germany).


I was drawn to his Bahia of All Saints (Candomble) gallery which depicts the practice of the Afro-Brazilian syncretism called Candomble in the Reconcavo Baiano region of the northeastern state of Bahia,Brazil. The images were made during an offering ceremony in a small village called Milagre San Roque.

Cristina Mittermeier: River People of the Amazon

Photo © Cristina Mittermeier-All Rights Reserved

Cristina Mittermeier grew up just outside of Mexico City, and is a photographer, a marine biologist, a writer, a world traveler, has a 20 year-long career in conservation and raised children. She is also Executive Director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Her passion in life is to use her photography to protect the planet’s resources.

Cristina is also a SONY Artisan of Imagery Photographer.

My favorite gallery out of Cristina's many galleries is that of the River People of the Amazon with photographs of the Kayapo people of the Amazon basin. However, before exploring Cristina's galleries, stay a moment on the main page of her website, click on Hide Menu at its bottom, and revel in her handful of glorious large photographs of the Amazon...these alone are worth the visit!

The Kayapo people are the native people of the plain lands of the Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil, south of the Amazon Basin and along Rio Xingu and its tributaries. Their population was just over 7000 in the latest census. Interesting, they extract medicine from 650 different plants that they find in the rainforest, and have a trade agreement with Body Shop!

Fernanda Preto: Cowboys of Pantanal

Fernanda Preto is a Brazilian photojournalist currently based in Sao Paulo, and after living in the Amazon area for three years, has worked in environment and social reportages. She obtained degrees from the Panamerican School of Arts in Sao Paulo and from the Tuiuti University of Parana.

Her short film is about the Cowboys of Pantanal, which she produced using a Canon 5D Mark II. Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world. Its largest area is in the state of Matto Grosso do Sul, with the rest being in Bolivia and Paraguay. It's considered as one of the last 37 natural wilderness areas in the world. The cowboys working in the area have survived for more than 100 years, doing the same task as the fathers and forefathers did, drive cattle to the highlands before the floods.

You can also see Fernanda's very well composed still images of the Pantanal Cowboys on her website by hovering your cursor over Features.

Jan Sochor: Nukak-Maku

Photo © Jan Sochor-All Rights Reserved
Jan Sochor has documented the Nukak Maku people, a nomadic indian tribe from the Amazon, who were driven out of the jungle by the Colombian guerrilla and paramilitary squads. More than half of the Nukak population have died of western diseases like flu. In refugee camps, the Nukak are taught from (mainly Christian) aid workers concepts and habits that were never part of their tradition.

Jan is a freelance photographer, working between South America and Europe. He lived and worked in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Czech Republic during the past five years. His photographs and stories have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, including Sunday Times, National Geographic, Reuters, Burn magazine, Foto8, 100Eyes, UNESCO, Boston Review, PDN online,and others.

I've always considered proselytizing by any religious group to be an abhorrent practice...hand in hand with racism and bigotry.

Found via The Click

Peter Turnley Does Rio's Carnaval

Photo © Peter Turnley -All Rights Reserved

..."I became aware of the value of turning my attention away from the main event. So often, the temptation is to look where everyone else is looking. But, time after time, I have chosen to observe what’s going on by looking in the other direction—before, or after, or at the edges of the main attraction." - Peter Turnley

And that he did. Turnley's just featured On the Fringe of the Rio Carnaval photo essay on The Online Photographer is unusual because it doesn't concentrate on the scantily-clad gorgeous women of the Rio's Carnaval as many other photojournalists do, but it rather takes us away from the glitz of the main event to the less glamorous side show...to the fringe as he calls it.

The photographs represent moments that occurred away from the main event. It is this amazing spirit which, in Turnley's mind, exemplifies the Carnaval, and inspires him to return to Brazil year after year.

The complete photo essay is on The Online Photographer.

NPR: Traveling Down The Amazon

Here's Traveling Down The Amazon, an intelligently produced NPR multimedia feature that combines audio, stills and graphics to tell the story of transcontinental highway being built in Peru and Brazil which promises to bring economic opportunities, and also acute environmental problems, to one of the most remote places on earth.

NPR correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro and staff photographer John Poole traveled the Peruvian route to produce this series.

I found this via a Twitter post (aka a "tweet") by Tracy Boyer, the editor of the excellent Innovative Interactivity blog, that deals with new multimedia and which she appropriately calls "a digital watering hole for multimedia enthusiasts".

Traveling Down The Amazon is not the kind of feature that one can watch in one sitting...it's too long and too dense to absorb in one go. So bookmark it for whenever you have the time to follow it properly.

I haven't had the time to watch except the first chapter The Road, and found it surprising that the producers of the piece haven't sync'ed the stills and the narration by Garcia-Navarro together. It hasn't bothered me much because I could return or go forward to the still photograph I was interested in, and still keep the narration going on.

Paula Marina: Iemanjá

Photo © Paula Marina-All Rights Reserved
Born in Recife, Brazil, Paula Marina is a journalist and photographer who currently lives and works in in Sao Paulo. She started photography at the tender age of 18 years old, attending various courses at SENAC, and working with prints and enlargements in a makeshift darkroom in her bathroom.

Her website showcases a broad panoply of photographic interests, ranging from fine art to more travel oriented photography, however what caught my attention was her photo essay on Iemanjá.

Iemanjá is the Goddess of the Water in the Brazilian Candomblé and Umbanda religions, and December 31 is when, in addition to celebrating New Year’s Eve, large crowds of its adherents are celebrating the Festa de Iemanjá near Rio's beaches. The goddess is offered flowers, gifts, perfume and rice which are cast into the water.

Like Santeria, it is basically a possession religion in which adherents assume the form of deities, both for worship and magic.

Damon Winter: The Kamayurá

Photo © Damon Winter/NYTimes-All Rights Reserved
Damon Winter and The New York Times bring us An Ancient Society, a multimedia essay (narrated by Elisabeth Rosenthal) on the Kamayurá, an Amazonian tribe living in the middle of Xingu National Park in Brazil. This area was a huge swathe of land originally in the depths of the Amazon, but which is is now surrounded by farms and ranches.

The article reports that around 5,000 square miles of Amazon forest are being cut down annually in recent years, affecting the environment and depriving the Kamayurá of their way of life.

Nicely photographed by Damon, the audio slideshow's narration is somewhat stilted, and, for my taste, there isn't enough ambient sound to add what I call "aural texture" to the essay...but it's interesting nevertheless.

Andrew Sullivan; Samba da Bahia

Photo © Andrew Sullivan/Courtesy Burn Magazine
Sometimes I stumble on a photograph that just stops me in my tracks. I can't really explain the reason, but all I know is that it has that effect on me...and Andrew Sullivan's sublime photograph made me stop. The caption reads that a delivery man called the waitress on the right "belleza pura", and he's right, but it's not only her that makes the photograph. All of its elements work...the positioning of the people, the shadows, the look, the colors...it all works just so perfectly.

Andrew Sullivan's photo essay Samba da Bahia is on the wonderful Burn magazine, which is amongst of the best photo websites I've seen in a while. Burn is curated by the legendary David Alan Harvey, one of the heroes of photography for his superlative work, and for his unstinting generosity in mentoring emerging photographers.

Andrew describes himself as a reformed newspaper photographer, but it's best to read his biography in his own words, as well as about his essay on the Samba da Bahia link above.

As a multimedia and samba aficionado, I must confess I literally ached to hear the sound that could have accompanied this photo essay. If only...but I can always look at them and play Jobim at the same time.

Thiago Bahia: Amazonia

Move over Ian Wright (Lonely Planet/Globe Trekker) and Michael Palin...you have a talented competitor who'll run circles around you.

Thiago Bahia is one of the hosts of Amazonia; a travel documentary soon to be aired on PBS that features the natural beauty of Belém, a city on the banks of the Amazon estuary, in the northern part of Brazil and capital of the state of Pará. Wach the 10 minutes documentary to appreciate Thiago's innate abilities to relate to the natural wonder of his birthplace.

Although his employment in a major financial institution is here in New York City, Thiago's heart (and possibly his mind as well) belong in Belém, and he is most comfortable as far away from concrete jungles as possible. Counting this talented young man as a personal friend, I have no doubt that he'll astound us even more.

Boa Sorte Thiago!

Conrad Louis Charles: Brazil

Photograph © Conrad Louis-Charles-All Rights Reserved
I met Conrad Louis-Charles at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City, he briefly described his background, but it wasn't until I returned that I discovered his work, and that the adage that still waters run deep is certainly true in his case.

Conrad is an independent photographer and cameraman currently based in Philadelphia and Sao Paulo in Brazil. He worked with various corporate clients, and he specializes in travel, documentary and editorial photography...making him a perfect candidate for the pages of TTP. He's represented by Getty Images.

His website showcases work from mainly Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Brazil. However, I was impressed by his Work-In-Progress gallery, which has a large number of his sensitive photograph of religious rituals and pilgrimages in northern Brazil. I'm not too fond of mixing color and black & white photographs, but Conrad kept the color photographs bunched together on his gallery, so it's not really mixing.

Explore his other galleries as well, and compare his Haiti work to that of the earlier post.

NY Times: Salvador da Bahia

Image © Lalo de Almeida for NY Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times recently featured the work of photographer Lalo de Almeida in a slideshow accompanying a travel article on Salvador da Bahia, the legendary Brazilian city described by the writer Jorge Amado as “the most mysterious and beautiful of the world’s cities” and “the most languid of women.”

The informative article by Larry Rohter tells us that Salvador da Bahia is reputed to have 365 churches, one for every day of the year, however it is also home for Candomblé, the African-derived religion and Brazil’s equivalent to voodoo. The Candomblé worship ceremonies are held in open-air sanctuaries known as terreiros in the poor neighborhoods of the city. I expect these would be fascinating venues for photography!

I very much like the lovely photograph by de Almeida of this equally lovely (and languid?) Bahian woman...it's exactly how I would've photographed her, against the backdrop of a cobblestoned street and looking away from the center of the photograph...giving the impression to the viewer that there's something else in the scene beyond the reach of the lens.

The NY Times' Jorge Amado's Salvador

NY Times: Samba In Brazil

Image © Lalo de Almeida/NY Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times brings us a slideshow of photographs by Lalo de Almeida of the preparations that go into the forthcoming carnival in Rio de Janeiro. It's a shame that there's no accompanying audio...really a shame.

The article is by Alexie Barrionuevo, and this sentence in it caught my eye: “They say Brazilians all have some samba in their feet,” Ms. Guimarães, a 23-year-old native of Minas Gerais, said. “I didn’t have much in mine. I know it has to improve, and I’m practicing hard.”. The speaker? Miss Brazil 2007 in the above photograph.

I guess I don't need to add anything to this post.

NY Times' Training for Carnival slideshow.

One Shot: Tatiana Cardeal

Image Copyright ©Tatiana Cardeal -All Rights Reserved
Tatiana Cardeal is a Brazilian independent photographer based in Sao Paulo, who spent her early career as an art director and graphic designer for international magazines. She decided to shift her focus to photography and document social, cultural and human right issues in 2003.

Her particular interest in South American indigenous people started at an early age, when she studied indigenous traditions and cultures. She calls her photography "social photography" because of the consequences and possible social changes that evolve from it. Her photographs can be interpreted as a denunciation, a call for action or a petition to help indigenous people by respecting them, respecting their land, their economy, their needs and their culture.

Tatiana says that her projects are long term in nature...some take at least 4 years to complete...but despite the difficulties, the lack of funding and the skepticism and frequent bureaucratic obstacles, she perseveres in documenting the various South American indigenous people. With the quality of her photography and her tenacity, I hope she is successful in her noble objectives.

Tatiana Cardeal's Blog

Sebastião Salgado: Amazon Tribes

Image Copyright © Sebastião Salgado -All Rights Reserved
As a boy growing up on a ranch in Brazil, Sebastião Salgado witnessed firsthand the destruction of the native forest. As thousands of acres were cleared for herds of cattle that demanded more and more pasture for grazing, the landscape was inexorably transformed into a dust-filled plain. Because of this experience, Salgado decided to make the remote tribes of South America an essential element of "Genesis," his eight-year collaboration with Rolling Stone to document the planet as it looked at the dawn of time.

The first half of the Genesis project is on the Yanomami Indians, who are believed to be among the first inhabitants of South America. For the Yanomami, the forest is not just 'nature' but an all-important living entity that controls the destiny of the tribe.

Here's via Rolling Stone magazine, Sebastião Salgado's The Hidden Tribes of the Amazon

Ezra Millstein: Brazil's Carnaval

Image Copyright © Ezra Millstein-All Rights Reserved
Ezra Millstein is from New York, and has lived, traveled and studied thoughout Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin and North America, as well as the Middle East. Most of his travels has been on his own, but some are a result of his work for the Peace Corps, WWF, Grassroots International and the National Geographic Society. He won numerous awards, including being selected as a finalist in the Smithsonian 4th Annual Photo Contest.

With a peripatetic traveler and prolific photographer such as Millstein, it was difficult to choose a specific gallery to recommend among the many good ones he lists on his flash-based website, but I chose his images of Brazil (click on Brazil and then Carnaval). His one-before last photograph of the series is just the funniest picture I've seen in a while, but I chose the one above to illustrate this post as it pulsates with rythm....and it has motion blur! For me, dance pictures must have motion blur...otherwise the dancers seem frozen.

Ezra Millstein's Galleries

ps Thanks Cathy!

Luciana Cavalcanti: Brazil

Images Copyright © Luciana Cavalcanti - All Rights Reserved
Based in Sao Paulo, Brazilian photographer Luciana Cavalcanti, has an unusal style which is showcased in her Colors of Figures project, and which I'm happy to bring to the pages of TTP. Luciana worked as a freelance photographer, as well as working with Brazilian newspapers.

Her colorful, cropped and blurred images explore the popular traditional (a lot of dancing as befits Brazil) festivals of Recife and Olinda, using saturated color and long exposures. There are a number of superb images here, and while some are -in my opinion- perhaps too blurry, it's an interesting style designed to focus on the colors and movements rather than on details.

I read that Luciana is working on a Colors of Figures video project, which presumably will be available as a multimedia website when completed. It will be an interesting watch, since her photographs are so full of frenetic motion. I wish her photographs had a soundtrack of the festivals' music, and hope her video project gets to completion quickly...perhaps a flash-based multimedia slideshow?!

Although Luciana's website would benefit from a facelift, her photography is well worth visiting. Here it is: Colors of Figures