Felipe Russo – Security Guard Posts in Sao Paulo

Via Conscientious I found the website of Brazilian photographer Felipe Russo and was interested in his series tipologias da insegurança. It shows private security guard booths, at night in Sao Paulo. After my last post on Sebastian Friedman’s Segurisimos, I seem to be on a security kick and so I thought I’d post his work.

© Felipe Russo

© Felipe Russo

While I respect the dangers of shooting at night in Sao Paulo, I think security guard booths are a little too easy. They are kind of the perfect subject matter for the typology approach, which is precisely the danger. They end up becoming the modern equivalent rustic barns. In fairness, I would make the same criticism of my Chalet series. I prefer his series on the periphery of Sao Paulo. If you read Portuguese, he has an interesting blog, modobulb, that he runs with his wife.

Cyrille Weiner – Brasilia

© Cyrille Weiner

© Cyrille Weiner

© Cyrille Weiner

Images from French photographer Cyrille Weiner’s series on Brasilia. I remember going to Brasilia in 2001 and being struck by how vibrant it was. I was expecting a failed utopia, a dead-planned city. Instead I found it booming with all kinds of new construction going up everywhere. Of course, the new construction; shopping malls, apartment towers, favela expansions, makes Brasilia more like any other Brazilian city and less the unique place that Lucio Costa imagined. [via Shooting Wide Open]

Joachim Schmid – Praça Rui Barbosa

Joachim Schmid - Praça Rui Barbosa

It might have been 2003 or 2004. I was perusing an art bookstore in Chelsea and I came across this book of portraits. They were ID photos taken in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and printed by the artist who gathered the discarded negatives from the plaza where the photographers worked. I didn’t buy the book nor write down the artists name. The project didn’t seem that significant in the moment but it stuck with me over time. Unfortunately I could never remember who it was by.

I was very happy to rediscover the project on the web. It’s by Joachim Schmid and the title is Praça Rui Barbosa. Schmid writes:

After the photographs are taken they run to the nearest lab to get the strip of film developed and printed. The clients pick up their portraits about half an hour after they were taken. Negatives are still discarded. During my stay in Belo Horizonte I got up very early every morning before the street cleaners start to work, walked to the square and collected all the negatives I found.

Nelson Kon – Sao Paulo

More aerial views of sprawling, Latin American megalopoli, this time of Sao Paulo from Brazilian architectural photographer Nelson Kon.