The 200 photographs in the José Medeiros exhibition Crônicas brasileiras (Brazilian Chronicles), on view at the Instituto Moreira Salles de Poços de Caldas through January 12, 2014, offer a wide-ranging historical account of the country from the 1940s to the 1960s, from the poorest and most oppressed members of society to its most powerful.
Throughout his career, and especially after the Second World War, José Medeiros (1921-1990), documented the lives of the lowest rungs of Brazilian society. The photographs in this exhibition depict places and groups of people that were largely inaccessible at the time, such as the Indians photographed during an expedition to villages in the north and northeast of the country. It was during this controversial period that Medeiros filed his legendary report on the initiation ceremony of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, published in the magazine O Cruzeiro.
At the same time and for the same magazine, Medeiros photographed the glamorous side of Rio in the 1940s and 50s. His cityscapes, beaches, palaces, parties, celebrities and bossa nova capture the city’s golden age of parties. Other photographs, more nostalgic, are echoes of an older iconography related to the discovery and construction of the country. Through José Medeiros’ lens, Rio de Janeiro becomes a historical and geographic doorway between two worlds: the landscape seems to turn its back on the country as it reaches for modernity, but it cannot escape its colonial roots. Medeiros’ photographs celebrate a country in the throes of transformation.
Crônicas brasileiras
Fotografias de José Medeiros
Until January 12th, 2014
Instituto Moreira Salles – Poços de Caldas
Rua Teresópolis, 90, Jardim dos Estados
Brazil
Tuesday – Sunday 1pm – 7pmF
ree Entrance
+55 35 3722-2776
http://ims.uol.com.br
