Rituals, narcissisms, divinities, ardour , bodies , allegories , sensations, quietude, reflections .
Ordinary things in Bahia .
Polaroid's SX-70. It won't let you stop. Suddenly you see a picture everywhere you look.
Now you press the red electric button. Whirr... whoosh... and there it is. You watch your picture come to life, growing more vivid, more detailed, until minutes later you have a print as real as life. Soon you're taking rapid-fire shots -- as fast as every 1.5 seconds! -- as you search for new angles or make copies on the spot. The SX-70 becomes like a part of you, as it slips through life effortlessly...
(Advertisement, 1975, quoted by Susan Sontag, On Photography)
250 passaport-size photos taken to narrate the beauty and richness of a population diversity .
I met the majority of these people just a few minutes before they stood in front of my camera.
Just a few moments to get know a little bit of their stories . So little time .
A roll film for each of them . Each film ten shots .One , two, three four, five, six, seven, eight, nine , ten . Too little time .
Little time yet enough to capture their expressions of dignity , pride of their sense of belonging , of joy, of perfection .
Ten shots . Nothing else . No interference . No instructions .
The result are the photos themselves : simple , real, honest
The beauty and the miracle of the ethnic diversity characterizing the Brazilian people prevails . Fear of diversity is fear of the unknown . The attempt to cancel differences, setting up rules and standards models is a self-limiting and a sterile choice .
To understand and respect another person from oneself , with his own beliefs , his own value and his physical features means establishing new means of communication that protect the individuality , the richness and the diversity that surround us .
Each one of them show that once you wear "brazilianity" you can't wipe it off .
This project is a collection of portraits with no aesthetic pretensions , it just want to illustrate and celebrate the beauty of diversity among the people .