2017 is not finished yet: newest work is out now!

My latest job was an assignment for UOL to cover one day in a life of a person who was victim of racism in 2017. This story is part of a series of four articles on relevant issues for our society this year.

The photos are part of a video narrated by the character itself and can be watched (in Portuguese) here.

Personal work about the Brazil's worst environmental crime

It's a new gallery about retired fishing nets of Regência, a small fishermen village in Espírito Santo. The workers had to stop fishing after the mining disaster in Bento Rodrigues (Minas Gerais). When In November 2015, the Fundão dam, controlled by Samarco S.A., suffered a failure and the toxic mud came to river Doce like a tsunami, killing 19 people and reaching 39 municipalities.

These scenes are the picture of neglection and hope.

(click on the picture to check the pictures)

(click on the picture to check the pictures)

Article about humanitarian crisis in Europe

I start my collaboration with Atados Rio writing an article (in Portuguese) about the refugees crisis in Paris, France. Atados is a Brazilian NGO that promotes connection between volunteers and a large number of social works.

I've been in the city for a couple of weeks in August and could see how different the speech and the reality are. The government is trying to sell a humanitarian camp as successful but people on the streets are not seeing that at all.

Understand here.

The BIG Project: our latest story is out!

The BIG Project is like a school for me. It’s the space where I can practice everything I’ve learning about photography and storytelling. 

It’s a (virtual) place created by Guiga Pirá and I to hit, to make mistakes and to create our own perspectives of the stories we want to share.

It’s been amazing this journey of learning how to be better with each story we’ve documented and, of course, seeing the project getting bigger.

Today, I’m so glad to share with you our latest story, about a very special guy in Rio de Janeiro who you should know and get inspired by: Ed Bastos.

(click on the picture to check the story)

(click on the picture to check the story)

Portraits for UOL

My latest job was published today on UOL: Rio has more than 1 million people unemployed. The article, wrote by Carolina Farias, is in Portuguese. I did portraits of Tatiana and Alexandre, two cariocas in this difficult situation. 

Tatiana Cristina da Silva, 34 years old, is a single mother with three kids and without a job since 2013. And Alexandre Silva, 42 years old, never had a regular job and nowadays works in downtown Rio for a store that sells jewelry -- he earns 50 reais a day.

Update: A man who had seen the article and the pictures sent me an email asking for Tatiana’s contact. She then told me that he gave her money to help the kids and herself! 

Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro - from 10 October to 31 March 2018

My work Proudly South African, made last March with an analogic camera, is now part of the exhibition Mwana: Childhood and Race Relations in Brazil and Africa, in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Promoted by the university, the exhibition also features photos of Stela Caputo, a photographer who developed a work about kids and african religions in Brazil for 25 years.

You can attend Mwana untill March 2018, from monday to friday, from 9am to 9pm, in the university campus at Urca, Av. Pasteur 250. 

Rock in Rio 2017

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Last Rock in Rio was the fourth time that I worked on the coverage for Multishow, the main entertainment channel in cable television that covers the whole festival on live TV.

This time, like in 2013, I worked as an online reporter responsible to write about the 28 shows that took place on the Sunset Stage. I was part of a very good team and the experience was amazing to practice this other side of myself.

Bellow are some reviews I wrote (in Portuguese):

- Nile Rodgers arrebenta tudo no Palco Sunset e faz festa inesquecível

- Com Supla como convidado, Doctor Pheabes mostra que estreia no Rock in Rio vai muito além do patrocínio da área de saúde

- Johnny Hooker, Liniker e Almério: juventude talentosa abre os palcos para a nova música brasileira

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A Clandestina campaign

It's out now the new campaign for A Clandestina, a handmade jewelry shop based in Rio de Janeiro. Aline Pommer is the model, Bruna Sussekind was responsible for the styling, Amine Chalita for the make up, Mariana Sixel for the hair and Junior Reis did the retouch. 

You can see all the pictures here, in COMMERCIAL page.

L'été à Paris

After two days walking around Paris, I had some street photography material and I've decided to create a new gallery called "l'été à Paris" (or "the summer in Paris" in French) to publish it. All the pictures are in black and white because I feel more comfortable without colors. Hope you like it.

Click here to see the entire gallery.

General Strike

Protest against Michel Temer and the reforms his government proposed in Brazil's social security system, during a national general strike, on June 30th, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro.

War in Rio

On June 28th, 2017, residents of Pavão Pavãozinho slum, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, wanted to protest against the violence in their community, but they were unable to because of the violence itself. 

In the same afternoon, police was there for an operation against drug dealers, and during a violent clash a resident was dead and four others were injured. In Rio, days like these are not unusual once again.

Gui Blum

Latest photos: Gui Blum portraits. Styling by Rafael Joaquim and production by Dandara Almeida. The photographs were retouched by Vecks. Special thanks to Fábrica Bhering :)

See more here!

The BIG Project

Months ago, me and Guiga Pirá (photographer and friend) started a photography project aimed at the environment and animal rights around the world.

We created The BIG Project, a project to tell stories through documentary photography. BIG means Before It's Gone because the stories we tell are from initiatives to protect the environment and animal rights, endangered areas in our society.

Our goal is to inspire positive changes to protect the planet that keeps us alive. For that, our stories are from people to bring everyone closer to exemplary attitudes, humanizing heroic deeds.

On our brand new website you can check two stories from South Africa, and soon another one that's almost finished told from a very special place.

Follow The BIG Project on Instagram for extras shots and facts: @thebigproject.life

Follow The BIG Project on Instagram for extras shots and facts: @thebigproject.life

Coração Vabagundo

I was in South Africa in February for a project and took the opportunity to take some unpretentious pictures. For that, I brought an analog Contax T2 and some Kodak Portra 400. 

When I got back to Brazil and developed the films I was in a bit of a crisis - I was surprised by how amazing that material came out but also couldn’t help but think it was a shame I haven’t dedicated myself a little more. 

Either way, I love these portraits. My hearts is filled with warmth just by looking at these kids and their smiles, the greatest memories I made in the african continent. 

I get really emotional about the looks in these pictures and the way those kids felt empowered and valued in front of the camera. As a giant, white man with the “gringo” looks I feel honored to have been able to access a small part of the lives of these little guys. 

It was one of the most special exchanges I’ve ever had. We identified ourselves in our insecurities; we communicated through the transparency we shared in common. 

While watching these kids I’ve realised that, as citizens of both third world countries, we share something: a sense of community and empathy for those around us that I don’t see often in more developed countries. That’s what’s left when so much is wrong around us. This warmth is priceless and inexplicable; is something you got to feel it. 

I hope these pictures can bring some of these feelings to you and also some hope. Not only today - Africa Day - but everyday. That the world be inspired by the happiness and strenght of these amazing people.  

Cheers to Africa!

To see all the pictures, click here.

PS: Coração Vagabundo means "bum heart" in Portuguese and the expression come from a song by Caetano Veloso.

(English translation by Lucia Hsu)

#FORATEMER

Story created during a protest against Brazil's President Michel Temer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 18. Michel Temer said he won't quit after an investigation revelead a record tape where he authorised hush-money payment for a witness in a major corruption probe. 

What's new: STORIES & more

This month this website turns five months old. After only four months I felt that I needed to update my portfolio because I'm constantly updating myself.

It seems easy to update your portfolio, just upload new pictures and that's all. But for me it's more than that. It's hard to define my work in a menu with four words. This freedom to choose my own way is amazing but I must confess I feel lost sometimes.  

In that way to discover (and change) myself and what I want to do, I'm playing everything. I love to do different kinds of photography, all this possibilities excite me. 

So, on PERSONAL you can find my own stuff. Pictures I took for fun. The news here are the gallery FRIENDS. I put together all the shootings with friends (not only in front of the camera, but also behind it). 

Basically I concentrated the fashion work on COMMISSIONED. I added a few new pictures on PORTRAIT, where you can find out who I shot.

I also added STORIES to this menu. I think this is the big news after this five months. I've decided to work more with documentary photography and STORIES is the gallery for that. 

There are stories that you already know, but I'm sharing now an unpublished story originally made for Reuters that I had never taken from my drawer. It's about SECRET REHEARSALS during Carnival in Rio. And there is another story, now with the complete material, about RESISTANCE.

I'm also editing a new story that's really special for me shot in 2013 about a peculiar favela in the more expensive area of Rio. As soon as I publish this one I'll let you know here in NEWS, where you can always follow my work :)
 

FAVELA RESISTS: click on the picture to see full story


SECRET REHEARSALS: click on the picture to see full story

André Chalhoub

Latest work: André Chalhoub portraits. Make up & hair by the amazing Carla Biriba. André was responsible for the styling as well. The photographs were retouched by Alt Retouch. Thanks, friends :)

See more here.