For Jean-Christophe Béchet, there are in Rio de Janeiro two cities that coexist, answer one another, avoid one another, and ultimately make the Carioca capital that unique place whose emblematic landmarks everyone knows: Copacabana, Maracanã, Ipanema, Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf…
To recount this duality, Jean-Christophe Béchet created, with Éditions Loco, two twin books, Rio Praia and Rio Centro, brought together here in this exhibition
Rio Praia is devoted to these endless stretches of sand, from Copacabana, the most popular, to Prainha, a surfers’ paradise away from the city. Rio’s beaches are a true agora where people come both to celebrate and to play sports, where everything mixes and intertwines in a welcoming atmosphere. They are a genuine social melting pot: the bourgeois resident of Leblon crosses paths with the kid from the favelas; couples sipping coconut water at the end of a workday in Arpoador meet those who use the place to cultivate their physical fitness and the sculpted appearance of their bodies.
Rio Centro is a plunge into the heart of the city, an economic and social crossroads as lively by day as it is deserted and dangerous at night, when the offices are closed. Nearby are the neighborhoods of Santa Teresa, Lapa, Botafogo, Flamengo, and Gávea… places where Street Photography is a perfect tool for bearing witness to a dark and contrasted universe.
Thus emerges a subjective and intimate portrait of Rio. A city well suited to Jean-Christophe Béchet’s photographic writing, in which the documentary spirit escapes toward a form of cinematic poetry that leaves reality suspended…
Jean-Christophe Béchet : Rio Praia / Rio Centro
through March 28, 2026
Galerie des photographes
29 rue Keller
75011 Paris
www.lagaleriedesphotographes.fr
