José Cordeiro Albano (Fortaleza CE 1944)
Photographer.
He graduated in English and Portuguese from the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) [Federal University of Ceará] in Fortaleza in 1968, and earned a master's degree in photography from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, New York, in 1972. He gained recognition in 1974 and 1975 with the series of reports published by the Fortaleza newspaper O Povo, entitled De Carona na Europa com José Albano [Hitchhiking in Europe with José Albano], totaling 32 full newspaper pages. Extremely versatile, he works in the most diverse fields of photography, from advertising to photojournalism, while developing in parallel a sensitive personal work engaged with the struggles for ecological causes, the autonomy of alternative communities and the preservation of the identity and independence of indigenous peoples. He illustrated several books with his photographs, among them Os Índios no Siará [The Indians in Siará], by José Cordeiro (1989); O Livro do Menino e o Mundo [The Book of the Boy and the World], by Angela Linhares (1991); As Asas do Anjo [The Angel's Wings], by Jussânia Borges (1994); and Brinquedos Populares [Folk Toys], by Gilmar Chaves (1996).
Collections
Coleção Joaquim Paiva [Joaquim Paiva Collection]
Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection] - São Paulo SP
Critiques
"It is only by itself that the spirit reveals itself, as if it were a photograph. In Zé Albano's work, one intimately feels a precise moment of this spirit revealed through photography, in which coherence, keen sensitivity and 'man/machine' precision balance one another to determine and feel, from the microcosm of nature to the macrocosm of human expression, all its involvement with the habitat, natural or artificial.
In Zé Albano's photo-graphic art there is an identity found, a strong, incisive and particularly poetic reality. And among all this, in a work of clear rhythm, he carries out in the darkroom such an important work of final art on his photos that it makes him a complete photographer".
Bené Fonteles
O Povo, Fortaleza CE - 23 set 1979.
"He has a third eye that sees square and the gift of freezing time with a simple touch of his index finger. José Cordeiro Albano follows the flock of those who have the rare gentleness capable of catching images in their most intimate and decisive moments. A photographer-magician, he carries around his neck an amulet that has never failed him in luck. The camera obeys like a little lamb the commands of a José who now prays for the utmost clarity of the instant, now selects fragments of everyday life, hiding part of the truth.
Living in isolation in a 'small ecological station', 18 km from downtown Fortaleza, is the legacy of someone who landed on North American soil in the rebellious 1970s on the pretext of doing graduate studies in photography. José Albano confirms: 'The experience in the United States marked me deeply. It completely revolutionized my worldview and my professional aspirations'. It is true. The young man who arrived in the land of Coca-Cola wanting to sharpen himself so as to 'flaunt' superiority back home ended up swept along by dreams of peace and love, ecological experiences, alternative rural communities and natural food.
Back home, the remnants of counterculture joined hands with his established status as a master of advertising photography. In his rammed-earth house-studio near Sabiaguaba Beach, José Albano still lives the contradiction of making his own bread and photographing commercial bread for advertisements. He tries to justify it: 'I can't deny that I enjoy photographing something I can completely control. In the studio, we are king, we make the photograph'. José Albano is crowned. Dealing with the alchemy of harmonizing lights, shadows, mirrors and reflectors, he teaches that magic happens when the object in focus gains a singular glow, seducing through appearance.
From this superhuman pursuit of perfectionism and beauty the photographer extracts the 'juice' to finance his pleasures. And they are many. José Albano loves photographing the surroundings of Sabiaguaba, the alternative communities scattered across Brazil, the landscapes of Ceará and, especially, his only offspring: Emília. There are more than 2,000 photographs of his daughter, from birth until today, at 17. The 'super-dad' never tires of celebrating what he himself defines as 'the first greatest opportunity given to us to change and improve the world'. Most paternal, he concludes: 'It is a chain of improvement of the human race'".
Ethel de Paula
Revista Entrevista - UFC/Jornalismo, Fortaleza CE, set 1994, nº 5.
"Photographic art has above all an attentive gaze on the world. José Albano's beauty of the Tapeba children speaks of this kind of sensibility. 'I think photographing the children in what they have of beauty was something that had an impact. People were impressed by those physical traits of the mixture of races', says Albano.
The faces of the Tapebas also reveal the photographer's interest in the human face. Albano is concerned with recovering people's practice of portraits. A return for him too. It was with portraits that Albano began in photography, in 1966. It was a time when turning 15 and not getting a poster hung on the living room wall was a drama. It was like not having that photo next to the globe on the school desk. Or like a child not having a frame with oval photos holding the telephone, a Dorminhoca doll, plastic flowers...
Albano wants to be as close to life as possible. He makes the portraits on b&w paper toned brown, which warms the skin and gives volume to the forms. Albano wants to get close to the real. When developing the photos, as the images emerge, he usually shouts: speak, speak, damn it... in allusion to Michelangelo's gesture, who, on finishing Moses, struck the sculpture's knee with a hammer and said: parla, parla".
Beatriz Furtado - Sábado Editor
Suplemento Sábado - Jornal O Povo - Fortaleza CE, 26 jan 1996.
Testimonials
"My work is quite conventional. I want my photography to be as similar as possible to life. That is why I don't like the special effects caused by filters, deliberately inadequate films, lenses with unreal behavior, chemical treatments to alter results... In that sense, I think I am a photojournalist. Even so, I understand that much of photography is subjective, dependent on my personal choices of angles, the moment of the click, processes... But I want everything close to life, at the service of the real".
José Albano
Group Exhibitions
1973 - Fortaleza CE - Itália [Italy], at Casa de Cultura Italiana da Universidade Federal do Ceará
1974 - Fortaleza CE - Alemanha [Germany], at Casa de Cultura Germânica da Universidade Federal do Ceará
1975 - Fortaleza CE - Crianças das Américas [Children of the Americas], at Galeria do Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos no Ceará
1976 - Fortaleza CE - Maisons, Visages et Paysages de France [Houses, Faces and Landscapes of France], at Aliança Francesa
1979 - Fortaleza CE - Fotógrafos Cearenses [Ceará Photographers], at Centro Médico Cearense
1982 - Fortaleza CE - Presença e Contrastes no Nordeste Brasileiro [Presence and Contrasts in the Brazilian Northeast], at Museu de Arte da Universidade Federal do Ceará
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5ª Mostra de Audiovisuais - Álbum da Emília e Sabiaguaba [5th Audiovisual Exhibition - Emília's Album and Sabiaguaba], at Funarte
1982 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - O Trabalho [Work], at Funarte
1983 - Fortaleza CE - Mulheres/Femmes [Women], at Museu de Arte da Universidade Federal do Ceará
1984 - Fortaleza CE - Fotonordeste [Photo Northeast], at Funarte
1984 - Fortaleza CE - Publifoto 84, at Galeria Gentil Barreira
1984 - Fortaleza CE - Sequências [Sequences], at Bar Le Snack
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Publifoto 84, at Galeria Gentil Barreira
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1ª FotoNordeste [1st Photo Northeast], at Funarte
1985 - Fortaleza CE - Publifoto 85, at Galeria Gentil Barreira
1988 - Fortaleza CE - Criança Tapeba [Tapeba Child], at Praça José de Alencar
1988 - New Hampshire (United States) - The Cearense Photographers, at Blackthorn Gallery, Portsmouth
1990 - Fortaleza CE - 41º Salão de Abril [41st April Salon], at Centro de Artes Visuais Raimundo Cela
1991 - Fortaleza CE - Encontro no Govinda [Meeting at Govinda], at Instituto Gaia
1992 - Fortaleza CE - Construindo em Taipa Minha Casa-Estúdio [Building My Rammed-Earth House-Studio], at Aliança Francesa
1992 - Munich (Germany) - Perto do Coração Selvagem/Nahe dem wilden Herzen [Near to the Wild Heart], at Offene Akademie der Münchner Volkshochschule - Aspekte Galerie
1992 - Salvador BA - 1º Salão Nacional de Arte Fotográfica da Bahia [1st Bahia National Photographic Art Salon], at Galeria Cañizares and UFBA
1993 - Salvador BA - 2º Salão Nacional de Arte Fotográfica da Bahia [2nd Bahia National Photographic Art Salon], at Galeria Cañizares and UFBA
1994 - Salvador BA - 3º Salão de Arte Fotográfica da Bahia [3rd Bahia Photographic Art Salon], at UFBA
1995 - Salvador BA - 4º Salão de Arte Fotográfica da Bahia [4th Bahia Photographic Art Salon], at UFBA
1993 - Fortaleza CE - Arte Postal Ceará [Ceará Mail Art], at Centro de Turismo
1993 - Fortaleza CE - Barcelona de Gaudí [Gaudí's Barcelona], at Casa de Cultura Hispânica da Universidade do Ceará
1993 - Fortaleza CE - Fotografia Contemporânea Cearense [Contemporary Photography from Ceará], at Galeria Ignês Fiúza
1993 - Porto Alegre RS - Salão Nacional de Racismo e Discriminação [National Salon on Racism and Discrimination], at Usina do Gasômetro / Instituto Cultural Judaico Marc Chagall
1993 - São Paulo SP - 1º Mês Internacional da Fotografia [1st International Photography Month], at Sesc Pompeia
1994 - João Pessoa PB - 1ª Semana Paraibana de Fotografia - Comunidades Alternativas [1st Paraíba Photography Week - Alternative Communities], at Funesc
1994 - São Paulo SP - 4ª Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [4th Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection], at Masp
1995 - Fortaleza CE - Motociclando [Motorcycling], at Centro Cultural da Abolição
1995 - São Paulo SP - 2º Mês Internacional de Fotografia - Investigação Brasil [2nd International Photography Month - Brazil Investigation], at CCSP
1995 - São Paulo SP - Coletiva Brasileira de Retratos Anos 80 e 90 [Brazilian Group Show of Portraits from the 1980s and 1990s], at Espaço Cultural Faap
1995 - Tokyo (Japan) - Living Together, at Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for Unesco, ACCU
1996 - Curitiba PR - 1ª Bienal Internacional de Fotografia da Cidade de Curitiba - Brasil Mostra Tua Cara [1st Curitiba International Photography Biennial - Brazil, Show Your Face], at Solar do Barão
1996 - London (England) - Novas Travessias - Contemporary Brazilian Photography [New Crossings - Contemporary Brazilian Photography], at Photographers Gallery
1997 - Aracaju SE - Sabiaguaba, at Cultarte
1997 - Fortaleza CE - Amamentação, o Melhor Começo da Vida [Breastfeeding, the Best Start in Life], state competition, at the auditorium of the Ceará State Health Department - honorable mention
1997 - Fortaleza CE - Ceará Terra da Luz [Ceará, Land of Light], at Centro Cultural do Palácio da Abolição, also shown on the Internet
1997 - Fortaleza CE - 1º Concurso Estadual de Fotografia Turística da Comissão de Indústria, Comércio, Turismo e Serviço da Assembleia Legislativa do Estado do Ceará [1st State Tourism Photography Competition of the Industry, Commerce, Tourism and Services Committee of the Ceará State Legislative Assembly], at Assembleia Legislativa do Estado do Ceará
1997 - São Paulo SP - 3º Mês Internacional da Fotografia - Verde Lente - Fotógrafos Brasileiros e a Natureza [3rd International Photography Month - Green Lens - Brazilian Photographers and Nature], at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Projeção Vídeos [Video Projection], at Barnaldo e Lucrécia
2002 - São Paulo SP - Visões e Alumbramentos: fotografia contemporânea brasileira da coleção Joaquim Paiva [Visions and Illuminations: Contemporary Brazilian Photography from the Joaquim Paiva Collection], at Oca
Source: Itaú Cultural
