Araquém Alcântara Pereira (Florianópolis SC 1951)
Araquém Alcântara Pereira is a photographer, journalist and teacher. In 1970, he enrolled in the School of Journalism of the University of Santos. While studying, he worked as a reporter for the newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and Jornal da Tarde, also taking up photography. In 1979, he produced his first story with an environmental focus, documenting Juréia Park in Iguape, São Paulo. Following this work, he began making photographic expeditions through the Atlantic Forest.
Between 1972 and 1982, he worked for the newspapers Cidade de Santos, O Globo and Tribuna de Santos and for the magazine Istoé, while also developing personal projects on ecological and social issues. In the 1980s, he took part in protests against the construction of nuclear power plants on Grajaúna beach in São Paulo. From 1985, he worked as a freelance photographer, contributing to Brazilian and international publications.
Between 1988 and 1998, he devoted himself to documenting the fauna and flora of Brazil's 36 national parks, work that resulted in the book Terra Brasil, published in 1998. Among the awards he has received are the Presença das Crianças nas Américas [Presence of Children in the Americas] award, granted by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in 1979; the Grand Prize of the 1st Ecological Photography Biennial, held in Porto Alegre in 1982; and the award for best exhibition in 1993, granted by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA). He is the author of 17 photography books, most of them devoted to Brazilian ecosystems. Besides his work as a photographer, he teaches workshops in several Brazilian states.
Critical Commentary
Considered one of Brazil's most important nature photographers, Araquém Alcântara was the first to carry out, over some 30 years, a systematic documentation of Brazil's national parks.
His images are a manifesto in defense of the ecological cause. Although he recorded the environmental degradation of the city of Cubatão, São Paulo, early in his career, his body of work is characterized not by denunciation but by a discourse exalting natural beauty. By revealing the richness and diversity of ecosystems unknown to most Brazilians, he draws attention to the need for preservation.
His work comes close to the aesthetics of international magazines such as National Geographic Universal, in which the photographer's presence is discreet, as the images are constructed according to the ideal of impartiality. The light is almost always natural. Flash is used only in extreme situations, and softly, so as not to create shadows that would betray its artificiality. Framing is done at eye level, seeking to reproduce a direct view, without distortion, as if photography were at the service of nature and merely a means of making it known. The compositions are balanced and present the forms of animals and plants clearly. The photographer isolates what he wants to show and does not overlap elements. As a result, he often individualizes nature, and when the viewer is faced with an animal looking into the camera, a kind of empathy is created.
The photographer and the photograph become invisible so that the principle of mimesis can work effectively. Nevertheless, it is clear that the choices are not made at random. In his landscapes, Alcântara waits for dawn and dusk, the times of day when a yellowish light bathes the atmosphere and gives visual unity to the wider shots. Backlighting appears as a poetic license, since it is one of the few devices that bring the result closer to a graphic expression.
On his expeditions to the national parks, Alcântara also focuses on the local population, recording in color scenes of work and folk celebrations of communities living close to nature. The photographer draws a parallel between the exuberance of the fauna and flora and the richness of popular culture. In festivities such as the rural maracatu in Pernambuco, the festa do boi in São Luís, the Círio de Nazaré in the Amazon and carnival in various regions of Brazil, the brightly colored embroidered costumes seem to mimic the plumage of birds.
When the subject is the human landscape, the artist shows a connection to the visual language characteristic of Brazilian modernism, which sought to draw attention to social issues and to the people of the country's interior. In his records of work, Alcântara focuses on the typical figures of each region: cowboys, fishermen and artisans are some examples. He emphasizes man's daily struggle with nature, although the individuals seem to be in harmony with their environment. The portraits convey integrity (people have a frank gaze) and, as in the animal photographs, seek to establish a direct relationship between the viewer and the subject.
Another strand of Alcântara's work is his series of urban scenes and black-and-white portraits. For him, it is as if suppressing color helped concentrate attention on the human figure. The photographer has a particular fondness for elderly people and children, almost always shown in playful situations. Although he bears witness to the poor living conditions of deprived populations, his photography pursues above all the idea of the decisive moment: it seeks unusual situations and moments of suspense that break away from the triviality of everyday life.
For the American essayist Susan Sontag, the camera beautifies the world.1 Even when recording social problems, Alcântara's choices of framing and light accentuate the idealizing character of the photographic image. Large urban centers such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, where contradictions are most evident, are seen mainly from a distance.
His work has the merit of giving visibility to a biodiversity that is still little known. 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. Sobre fotografia. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2004, p. 101.
Collections
Centre Georges Pompidou Collection - Paris (France)
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo Collection/Brazil - São Paulo SP
MAM/SP Collection - São Paulo SP
Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection - São Paulo SP
Critiques
"(...) At first glance, looking for the 10,000 announced Hiroshimas, one comes face to face not with destruction but with existence. Still. Of the sea, the sun, the boat and the caiçara, part of the landscape. Stubborn, because he finds support in the land, the water and the sun. Vital elements. But if they dissolve rapidly into 'progress', the caiçara, without support, will collapse. And Araquém Alcântara, photographer, reporter, son of the caiçara, fears it will be too late. So he records the now. 'Progress' sometimes moves and invades so quickly! (...)"
Stefania Bril
Bril, Stefania. Imagens da letra silenciosa. O Estado de S. Paulo.
"(...) His images are strong. A trigger eye. A passionate record, committed to preservation and to denouncing destruction. Photography is used to document the country's rapid process of ecological transformation and to help recover our scarce and fragmented visual memory. The camera is his instrument. (...)"
Rubens Fernandes Junior
Fernandes Junior, Rubens. Araquém capta situação ecológica. Folha de S.Paulo.
"My work is the chronicle of beauty and of extermination. Portraits of a country we will soon no longer see. I collect faces, landscapes, movements and glints in the hope that they will not be condemned to live only in memory and on paper. Every image I capture leads me to the faith that nature and the humble people of the sertão and the forests will resist, despite so much invasion, unawareness, devastation and death. The genocide of native peoples, poverty, the unpunished violation of ecosystems on one side - and on the other, the immense fertility of this Amazonian country, a true symphony of beauty. My song is complicity and reverence. My photography is oxygen".
Araquém Alcântara
August 15, 1996
Solo Exhibitions
1973 - Santos SP - Solo, at Clube XV
1974 - Santos SP - Solo, at Galeria de Arte de Santos
1988 - São Paulo SP - Verbo: Ver [Verb: To See], at Sesc Pompéia
1989 - São Paulo SP - Juréia, the Struggle for Life, at Masp
1991 - São Paulo SP - Inner Sea, at MIS/SP
1993 - Santos SP - Santos, at Centro Cultural Brasil-Estados Unidos
1994 - São Paulo SP - Lights of Alcântara, at Casa Fuji de Fotografia
2004 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo: Settings and Characters, at Prefeitura Municipal
2004 - São Paulo SP - Brazilians, at Fnac Paulista
Group Exhibitions
1975 - Santos SP - Ecological Photography, at Prodesan
1978 - Mexico - Promotion of the Mexican Council of Photography
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Photography Show, at Funarte. Galeria de Fotografia
1979 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 3rd Photography Show, at Funarte. Galeria de Fotografia
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th Photography Show, at Funarte. Galeria de Fotografia
1983 - Paris (France) - Group show Brésil des Brésiliens, at Centro Georges Pompidou
1983 - São Paulo SP - Photography, a Personal Expression, at CCSP
1984 - Havana (Cuba) - Hecho en Latino-América
1985 - São Paulo SP - 1st Photography Quadrennial, at MAM/SP
1987 - São Paulo SP - Brazil: Settings and Characters, organized by Funarte (traveling)
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil, Settings and Characters, at Funarte and the Ministério das Relações Exteriores, previously shown in 1988 in several countries
1992 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - São Paulo/1992, at Paço Imperial
1992 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Pirelli/MASP Photography Collection, at Masp
1995 - São Paulo SP - Group show Portraits of São Paulo, at CEF
1996 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Imagenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Casa do Brasil
1996 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Imagenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
1996 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Imagenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber
1999 - Wolfsburg (Germany) - Brasilianische Fotografie 1946 bis 1998, at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
2002 - São Paulo SP - Eye on 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) - Journey to the Brazils, at Carreau du Temple
2006 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Contemporary Brazilian Photography in the Carlos Leal Collection, at Caixa Cultural Rio
Source: Itaú Cultural
