Cristiano Mascaro (Catanduva SP 1944)
Cristiano Mascaro is a photographer, architect and teacher. A graduate in Architecture from the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (FAU/USP), Cristiano Alckmin Mascaro is one of the most renowned photographers in the city of São Paulo, especially recognized for his work documenting the city's architecture, an area to which he has devoted more than two decades of his career. His most significant works include records of the interior of São Paulo state and of historic heritage sites in various regions of Brazil. His career in photography began in 1968, when he was invited to join the first team of Veja magazine, where he stayed for four years. He taught photojournalism at the Enfoco Escola de Fotografia between 1972 and 1975, directed the Audiovisual Resources Laboratory of FAU/USP from 1974 to 1988 and taught visual communication at the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de Santos from 1976 to 1986.
He earned his master's degree in 1986 with the dissertation O Uso da Fotografia na Interpretação do Espaço Urbano [The Use of Photography in the Interpretation of Urban Space], and his doctorate in 1995 with the thesis A Fotografia e a Arquitetura [Photography and Architecture], both at FAU/USP. He is the author of several books, among them A Cidade [The City] (1979), Cristiano Mascaro, As Melhores Fotos [Cristiano Mascaro, The Best Photos] (1989), Luzes da Cidade [City Lights] (1996), São Paulo (2000) and O Patrimônio Construído - As 100 Mais Belas Edificações do Brasil [The Built Heritage - The 100 Most Beautiful Buildings in Brazil] (2003). He received the Eugène Atget International Photography Prize in 1984 and the Vitae Photography Grant in 1989.
Critical Commentary
Cristiano Mascaro began his academic career at the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo - FAU/USP. In 1968, the year he graduated, he was invited to join the first team of Veja magazine, where he worked as a photojournalist until 1972. His first book, A Cidade [The City], 1979, combines the objectivity of photojournalism with an architect's eye, capturing buildings, squares and monuments not so as to isolate them from their inhabitants, but to place them within the profusion of landscapes that makes up a big city. The same happens, more markedly, in Luzes da Cidade [City Lights], from 1996. Mascaro uses everyday scenes and characters of São Paulo to populate the architectural universe of the metropolis. The aim seems to be to capture the fleeting, the instantaneous, and to set it against what is built, what endures. There is also an element of historical documentation in the work, a record of the transformation of landscapes. This interest in modern buildings and in the changes in urban spaces led him to hold, in 1994, the exhibition Brasil: Arquitetura Recente [Brazil: Recent Architecture] at the Deutsches Architektur Museum [German Architecture Museum] in Frankfurt, Germany. During this period he completed his master's degree with the dissertation A Fotografia na Interpretação do Espaço Urbano [Photography in the Interpretation of Urban Space], in 1986, and his doctorate, defending the thesis A Fotografia e a Arquitetura [Photography and Architecture], in 1995.
Formally, both A Cidade and Luzes da Cidade are permeated by Mascaro's geometrizing eye. He accentuates the lines and curves of his subjects with plays of light and shadow that, on the one hand, bring out the architectural element of his photographs and, on the other, reveal a kind of cultural relationship between the inhabitants and the urban spaces in which they live and which they frequent. There is a photo of the Marginal Pinheiros expressway in São Paulo that shows, amid dozens of cables and power pylons and within the frame of an empty billboard, two people working on what appears to be a repair. They have their backs to us and stretch out from a ladder to fasten a cable to the metal structure. There is a temporal suspension in the picture, a moment that checks the drive toward modernization evoked by the image's whole industrial tone.
With the launch of São Paulo, in 2002, this facet of recording everyday life becomes even more evident. These are small events, ordinary scenes at birthday parties and amusement parks, captured both in the capital and in towns in the interior and on the coast of São Paulo state. Geometric forms are still present, though at times more suggested than in his earlier work. The landscapes, in turn, reinforce the character of a travel book. What comes through, however, is the photographer's ability to immerse himself in the daily life of countless towns. Whether through the expressive use of light and shadow or through his continual refinement in highlighting singular moments and gestures, Mascaro creates scenes that, in their lack of grandeur, express relationships between people and their bond with their cities.
In 2003 he took part as photographer in the book O Patrimônio Construído - As 100 Mais Belas Edificações do Brasil [The Built Heritage - The 100 Most Beautiful Buildings in Brazil], in which he recorded listed heritage monuments throughout the country. The accentuated lines return, as does the shaping of the images by the architectural lines and curves of the buildings photographed. Buildings dating from the 16th century sit alongside relatively recent constructions, such as the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, which, beyond the important historical document the book represents, shows Mascaro's ability to harmonize disparate elements through their geometric relationships. At the 6th Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo, in 2005, he presented the exhibition Brasil XYZ. In a white cube, images of Brazilian cities seen in the light of their architectural styles confirm Mascaro's vocation as a photographer both of forms and of the people who inhabit them.
Critiques
"(...) Mascaro's relationship with São Paulo is almost one of submission: he lets himself be penetrated by the mass of concrete, the strips of cement, the slices of sky. With people, the relationship changes: the photographer becomes the director of a play. And the city's inhabitants detach themselves for a moment from their everyday surroundings, gazing at the camera with an inward look. That look which is independent of the moment and which generates archetypes, like those of Sander.
Cristiano's São Paulo is not a metropolis of crowds or of frantic pace. It lets itself be imprinted with the 'footprints' of the hurried world, and the photographer captures them, blurred traces that cross the image and try to drag the inhabitant into pulsating urban life".
Stefania Bril
BRIL, Stefania. As imagens de três amores urbanos. O Estado de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 06 set. 1984. p. 19.
"(...) Cristiano Mascaro's work is marked by a romanticism and by an absolutely brilliant atmosphere. The photographer does not want a picturesque city, but rather to record its diversities, which multiply in broad daylight. A profusion of images like a great spectacle of urban life, a mass of individual activities that generalize the life and energy of the city and make reality seem magical and strange, in any city in the country. This is how he sees cities through his Hasselblad, to imagine his world. Cities are a permanent disorder, where everything - people, cars, architecture, clouds, sun - is terribly out of step, where each element belongs to different mechanisms over which we have no control. Suddenly, in a moment of magic and pleasure, things fall into harmony and what no one saw becomes an image by Cristiano Mascaro. In a fraction of a second, he manages to construct a form of truthfulness".
Rubens Fernandes Junior
FERNANDES JUNIOR, Rubens. O ocaso e o imponderável. In: MASCARO, Cristiano. Luzes da cidade. São Paulo: DBA, 1996.
Collections
Acervo da Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo/Brasil - São Paulo SP
Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Paris (France)
Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana - Quito (Ecuador)
Centre d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou - Paris (France)
Coleção Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo - MAC/USP - São Paulo SP
Coleção Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias - São Paulo SP
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House - Rochester (United States)
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - Masp - São Paulo SP
Solo Exhibitions
1974 - São Paulo SP - Urban Landscape, at Galeria Enfoco
1976 - São Paulo SP - Bom Retiro and Luz: An Itinerary, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1976 - São Paulo SP - Vila Penteado, a Journey into Art Nouveau, at FAU/USP
1977 - Washington (United States) - Urban Landscape, at Galeria da Organização dos Estados Americanos
1980 - Cuiabá MT - Urban Landscape, at UFMT
1980 - Cuiabá MT - No One Teaches What They Don't Know, at UFMT
1981 - São Paulo SP - No One Teaches What They Don't Know, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1981 - Brasília DF - No One Teaches What They Don't Know, at Centro de Convenções Brasília
1983 - Rochester (United States) - Brazil, at 28 Arlington Gallery
1983 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Landscape, at FAU/USP
1986 - São Paulo SP - Avenida São João, at Galeria Fotoptica
1986 - São Paulo SP - Avenida São João, at FAU/USP
1986 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Portraits, at Metrô São Bento
1986 - Salvador BA - Salvador, at Galeria Anarte
1988 - São Paulo SP - O Pano Sobe [The Curtain Rises], on the renovation and restoration of the Teatro Municipal
1989 - São Paulo SP - The Best Photos of Cristiano Mascaro, at MIS/SP
1990 - Manaus AM - The Restoration of the Teatro Amazonas, at Teatro Amazonas
1990 - Fortaleza CE - The Restoration of the Teatro José de Alencar, at Teatro José de Alencar
1991 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, at Galeria Cândido Mendes
1991 - Curitiba PR - Urban Landscapes, at Casa Romário Martins
1993 - Curitiba PR - Curitiba Photography Week: Solo Room, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba
1994 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Brazil: Recent Architecture, at Deutsches Architektur Museum
1994 - Curitiba PR - Brazilian Houses, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba
1995 - São Paulo SP - Rua Florêncio de Abreu, at Museu Banespa
1996 - São Paulo SP - City Lights, at Masp
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Urban Records, at Paço Imperial
1999 - São Paulo SP - Retrospective, at Faculdade de Fotografia do Senac Lapa
2002 - Ribeirão Preto SP - São Paulo, at Universidade de Ribeirão Preto
2004 - São Paulo SP - Contemporary São Paulo, at Instituto Moreira Salles
Group Exhibitions
1971 - São Paulo SP - 9 Photographers from São Paulo, at MAC/USP
1971 - São Paulo SP - Five Architect Photographers, at IAB/SP
1972 - São Paulo SP - 6 Photographers, at Galeria Eucatexpo; 22 Semana 72 [22 Week 72], celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Semana de Arte Moderna [Modern Art Week], at FGV
1974 - São Paulo SP - Five Architect Photographers, at IAB/SP
1979 - São Paulo SP - Brás: A Photographic Documentation, joint exhibition with Pedro Martinelli, at MIS/SP
1979 - São Paulo SP - Group Show Photography at FAU, at FAU/USP
1981 - São Paulo SP - Exhibition of the Four - Portraits by Madalena Schwartz, Cristiano Mascaro, Mario Cravo Neto and João Sócrates, at Galeria Fotoptica
1981 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Fotografie Lateinamerika, von 1860 bis heute
1983 - London (England) - Brazilian Photography, at The Photographers' Gallery
1983 - Paris (France) - Brésil des Brésiliens, at Centre Georges Pompidou
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Urban Visions, at Instituto de Fotografia da Funarte
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Urban Visions, at MNBA
1984 - São Paulo SP - Urban Visions, at Salão Fuji
1984 - São Paulo SP - Self-Portrait of the Brazilian: City and Countryside, at Bienal Tradição e Ruptura
1985 - Paris (France) - Exhibition of International Photographers Winners of the Eugène Atget Prize, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1985 - São Paulo SP - The Work of the Architect Vilanova Artigas, at CCSP
1986 - Havana (Cuba) - 2nd Havana Biennial
1986 - Quito (Ecuador) - Brazil, at Casa da Cultura Equatoriana
1988 - Milan (Italy) - 17th Milan Triennale: Images of São Paulo
1988 - New York (United States) - Brazil Projects, at Institute for Art and Urban Resources, PS-1
1990 - São Paulo SP - 10 Years of Celebration, at Galeria Fotoptica
1990 - São Paulo SP - Images of São Paulo, at Citibank
1990 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Memory: Tribute to Benedito Calixto, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1991 - São Paulo SP - 1st Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Masp
1992 - Curitiba PR - 10th Curitiba City Printmaking Exhibition/America Exhibition, at Museu da Gravura
1992 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Brasilien: Entdeckung und Selbstentdeckung, at Kunsthaus Zürich
1993 - Curitiba PR - Joaquim Paiva Collection, at Museu de Artes de Curitiba
1994 - Curitiba PR - 4th Photography Week, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba
1995 - São Paulo SP - 2nd International Month of Photography: Contemporary Portraits, at Faap
1995 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Group Show of Portraits from the 1980s and 1990s, at Espaço Cultural Faap
1996 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Imágenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Casa do Brasil
1996 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Imágenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
1996 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Imágenes de Brasil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber
1997 - São Paulo SP - Arte Cidade: The City and Its Stories
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Image of the Sound of Caetano Veloso, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Image of the Sound of Chico Buarque, at Paço Imperial
1999 - Wolfsburg (Germany) - Brasilianische Fotografie 1946 bis 1998, at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
2001 - São Paulo SP - Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2002 - São Paulo SP - Photographs in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Visions and Illuminations: Brazilian Contemporary Photography from the Joaquim Paiva Collection, at Oca
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAM Photography Collectors Club, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Compressors and Condensers, at Espaço MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAC USP 40 Years: Contemporary Interfaces, at MAC/USP
2003 - São Paulo SP - Crossed Gazes, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2004 - São Paulo SP - (De)constructing São Paulo, at MIS/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Cubanaimã, at Ímã Foto Galeria
2004 - São Paulo SP - Photography and Sculpture in the MAM Collection - 1995 to 2004, at MAM/SP
2004 - São Paulo SP - Inspiration, at Galeria Luisa Strina
2004 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo 450 Years: The Image and Memory of the City in the Instituto Moreira Salles Collection, at Centro Cultural Fiesp
Source: Itaú Cultural
