Araquém Alcântara Pereira (Florianópolis SC 1951)
Araquém Alcântara Pereira is a photographer, journalist and teacher. In 1970, he joined the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Santos. During his graduation, he worked as a reporter in the newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and Jornal da Tarde, also starting in photography. In 1979, he carried out his first article with an environmental focus, documenting Parque da Juréia, in Iguape, São Paulo. From this work, he began to make photographic expeditions through the Atlantic Forest.
Between 1972 and 1982, he acted in the newspapers Cidade de Santos, O Globo, Tribuna de Santos and in the magazine IstoÉ, in addition to developing personal projects focused on ecological and social issues. In the 1980s, he participated in protests against the installation of nuclear plants on Grajaúna beach, in São Paulo. From 1985, he started working as a freelance photographer, collaborating with national and international periodicals.
Between 1988 and 1998, he dedicated himself to the documentation of the fauna and flora of the 36 parks Brazilian ecological, work that resulted in the book Terra Brasil, published in 1998. Among the awards it received, the following stand out: the presence of children in the Americas, granted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in 1979; the Grand Prix of the 1st Ecological Photography Biennial, held in Porto Alegre, in 1982; and the best exhibition in 1993, granted by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA). He is the author of 17 photography books, most of which are focused on Brazilian ecosystems. In addition to his photographic performance, he works as a teacher in workshops held in several states of Brazil.
Critical Comment
Considered one of the most important photographers of nature in Brazil, Araquém Alcântara is the first to develop, in fence 30 years old, a systematic work of documentation of Brazilian national parks.
Its images are a manifesto in defense of the ecological cause. Although it recorded the environmental degradation of the city of Cubatão, São Paulo, at the beginning of its career, the set of his work is not characterized by the denunciation, but by the speech of exaltation of natural beauties. Revealing the richness and diversity of ecosystems unknown to most Brazilians, he draws attention to the need for preservation.
The work is close to the aesthetics of international magazines such as National Geographic Universal, in which the presence of the photographer is discreet, as the images are built following the ideal of impartiality. Light is almost always natural. Flash is used only in extreme situations, in a smooth way, trying not to create shadows that denounce its artificiality. The framing is made at eye level, seeking to reproduce a direct vision, without distortions, as if the photograph was at the service of nature and was just a means of disseminating it. The compositions are balanced and present the shapes of animals and plants clearly. The photographer isolates what he wants to show and does not override elements. As a consequence, he often individualizes nature and, when the observer comes across an animal that looks at the camera, a kind of empathy is created.
The photographer and photography become invisible so that the principle of mimesis works effectively. However, it is clear that the choices are not made by chance. In the landscapes, Alcântara awaits dawn and dusk, a time of day when a yellowish luminosity bathes the atmosphere and gives visual unity to the wider shots. The backlight appears as a poetic license, as it is one of the only resources that bring the result of a graphic expression closer.
In the expeditions to national parks, Alcântara also focuses on the local population, recording in color work scenes and folkloric manifestations of communities that live close to nature. The photographer establishes a parallel between the exuberance of fauna and flora and the wealth of popular culture. At parties such as the Rural Maracatu, in Pernambuco, the Festa do Boi, in São Luís, the Círio de Nazaré, in the Amazon, and the Carnival, in different regions of Brazil, the clothing, embroidered and very colorful, seem to mimic the plumage of the birds.
When the theme is the human landscape, the artist is linked to the visuality characteristic of Brazilian modernism, which intended to draw attention to social issues and the population of the interior of the country. In the work records, Alcântara focuses on the typical characters of each region: cowboys, fishermen and artisans are some examples. It emphasizes the daily clash of man with nature, although individuals seem to be in harmony with the environment. The portraits denote integrity (people have a frank look) and, like in animal photos, seek to establish a direct relationship between the viewer and the referent.
Another aspect of Alcântara's work is the series of urban scenes and the black and white. For him, it is as if the suppression of colors helped to focus attention on the human figure. The photographer has a special predilection for elderly people and children, almost always shown in playful situations. Even if I witness the bad living conditions of needy populations, their photography, above all, pursues the idea of a decisive moment: it seeks unusual situations and moments of suspense that detach from the triviality of the day-to-day.
For the American essayist Susan Sontag, the Chamber promotes the beautification of the world.1 Even when registering social problems, Alcântara's choices in relation to the framing and light accentuate the idealizing character of the photographic image. Large urban centers such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, where the contradictions are more evident, are predominantly seen from the distance.
His work has the merit of giving visibility to a still little known biodiversity. However, by highlighting the spectacular aspect of the landscape, it creates the image of an enchanted country full of waterfalls, caves and lakes. "Terra Brasil" is, above all, a paradise inhabited by an open, frank and honest people.
note
1 Sontag, Susan. about photography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2004, p. 101.
Cerves
Center Center Georges Pompidou - Paris (France)
Collection of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo/Brazil - São Paulo SP
MAM/SP Collection - São Paulo SP
Pirelli/Masp Collection of Photographs - São Paulo SP
Criticism
"(...) First look and when looking for the 10,000 advertised Hiroshimas is face to face not with the destruction but with the existence. still. From the sea, from the sun, from the boat and from the caiçara, part of the landscape. Stubborn, because he finds the support in the land, water and the Sun. Vital elements. crumble. And Araquém Alcântara, photographer, reporter, son of the caiçara, is afraid that it will be too late. So he records the now. 'progress' sometimes walks and invades so quickly! (...)"
Stefania Bril
BRIL, Stefania. Silent letter images. The State of S. Paulo.
"(...) Your images are strong. Trigger eye. A passionate record committed to preservation, the denunciation of destruction. Photography is used to document the rapid process of ecological transformation of the country and contribute to rescue our scarce and fragmented visual memory The camera is its instrument. (...)"
Rubens Fernandes Junior
FERNANDES JUNIOR, Rubens. Araquém captures an ecological situation. Folha de S.Paulo.
"My work is the chronicle of beauty and extermination. Portraits of a country that we will soon see no more. I collect faces, landscapes, movements, sparkles with the hope that they will not be condemned to live only in memory and on paper. Each image that I capture leads to the faith that nature and the humble man of the sertão and forests will resist, despite so much invasion, unconsciousness, devastation and death. The genocide of primitive peoples, misery, The unpunished rape of ecosystems - on the one hand, on the other, the immense fertilization of this Amazonian country, a true symphony of beauties. My singing is complicity and reverence. My photography is oxygen". August 15, 1996
Individual exhibitions
1973 - Santos SP - Individual, at Clube XV
1974 - Santos SP - Individual, at the Santos Art Gallery
1988 - São Paulo SP - Verbo: Ver, at Sesc Pompéia
1989 - São Paulo SP - Juréia, The Fight for Life, at MASP
1991 - São Paulo SP - Mar de Dentro, in the MIS/SP
1993 - Santos SP - Santos, at Centro Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos
1994 - São Paulo SP - Lights of Alcântara, at Casa Fuji of Photography
2004 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo: Scenarios and characters, at the City Hall
2004 - São Paulo SP - Brazilians, at FNAC Paulista
Collective exhibitions
1975 - Santos SP - Ecological photography, at Prodesan
1978 - Mexico - Promotion of the Mexican Photography Council
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Photography Exhibition, at Funarte. Photography Gallery
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Photography Exhibition, at Funarte. Photography Gallery
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th Photography Exhibition, at Funarte. Photography Gallery
1983 - Paris (France) - Collective Brésil des Brésiliens, downtown Georges Pompidou
1983 - São Paulo SP - Photography, a personal expression, at CCSP
1984 - Havana (Cuba) - Hecho en Latin America
1985 - São Paulo SP - 1st Quadrennial of Photography, at MAM/SP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Brazil: scenarios and characters, organized by FUNARTE (Itinerant)
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil, scenarios and characters, at Funarte and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, already presented in 1988 in several countries
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - São Paulo/1992, at Paço Imperial
1992 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Pirelli Collection/Masp Photography, at Masp
1995 - São Paulo SP - Collective Portraits of São Paulo, at CEF
1996 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Images of Brazil. Pirelli/Masp Photo Collection, at Casa do Brasil
1996 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Imagenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
1996 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Images from Brazil. Pirelli/Masp Photo Collection, at the Contemporary Art Museum of Caracas Sofía Imber
1999 - Wolfsburg (Germany) - Brasilianische photography 1946 bis 1998, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
2002 - São Paulo SP - Looking into the future, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Labyrinths and identities: photography in Brazil from 1945 to 1998, at Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2005 - Paris (France) - Trip to Brazil, at Carreau du Temple
2006 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Contemporary Brazilian photography at the Carlos Leal Collection, at Caixa Cultural Rio
Source: Itaú Cultural
