Pedro Martinelli (Santo André SP 1950)
Photographer.
Pedro José Martinelli began his career as a press photographer at Gazeta Esportiva in 1967 and at Diário do Grande ABC in 1968. In 1970, he worked for the newspapers O Globo and Última Hora in Rio de Janeiro. At that time he documented the Kranhacãrore expedition, led by the brothers Cláudio Villas-Boas and Orlando Villas-Boas, which made the first contact with that tribe of "giant Indians". He was photo editor of Veja magazine between 1976 and 1983, and director of photographic services at Editora Abril from 1983 to 1994. During this period, he did freelance work for fashion and travel magazines. From 1994, he worked as an independent photographer, devoting himself to the series O Homem na Amazônia [Man in the Amazon], published by Folha de S. Paulo the following year. He received awards on several occasions: 1st place in the Retratos do Brasil [Portraits of Brazil] contest of Realidade magazine, 1972; 2nd place in the Nikon Photo Contest International, 1975; Prêmio Abril for best cover, 1977; Prêmio Abril for best report, 1981, among others. In 1996, he was awarded the Bolsa Vitae photography grant, the same year he received the Prêmio Esso de Jornalismo in the scientific, technological and ecological information category. In addition to appearing in several collective works, he is the author of the books Casas Paulistanas [São Paulo Houses], 1998; Panará, a Volta dos Índios Gigantes [Panará, the Return of the Giant Indians], 1998; Amazônia, o Povo das Águas [Amazon, the People of the Waters], 2000; and Mulheres da Amazônia [Women of the Amazon], 2003. He held a solo exhibition at the Memorial da América Latina, in São Paulo, in 2004.
Critical Commentary
The documentary character seems to be the most striking aspect of Pedro Martinelli's work. For many years at the service of journalism, the photographer's lens followed the main events of national life: sports (World Cups and Olympics); politics (personalities and relevant moments); extraordinary events (the implosion of the Mendes Caldeira Building and the fire at the Joelma Building); aspects of everyday city life, etc. This body of photojournalistic work reveals a preference for the human figure, especially poor people, the world of work in the countryside and in the cities, and political demonstrations (strikes and the student movement).
The document that the artist's engaged camera brings to light tries to capture less evident faces of national history, those related to the working classes, to laborers, Indigenous people, caboclos, etc. What is photography? "A document. Like an identity card (...). It is fundamentally memory, especially in Brazil, where there are many things to be told," he says. Talking about the country requires traveling through it. With this aim he began his journeys through the Amazon in the 1970s, in partnership with indigenists and anthropologists. There, the photographer seeks to break with the usual clichés of the region's fauna, flora and Indigenous peoples, turning to the everyday lives of the men and women who "live from the waters". His preference for black and white is related to the conviction that "color deceives immediately by the simple fact of being color". Moreover, b&w allows specific work with light: "If I get the light wrong I'll have a terrible image".
Critiques
"There was a time when it was said that the media transform events into spectacles for mass consumption. Today it would be more accurate to say that events themselves are already staged as spectacles for the media. There are examples of suicides who wait for the cameraman to arrive before jumping from the building. Or of rioters who agree to surrender only if a press photographer is there to witness it. In the same way, the street carnival, the crown prince's wedding and the World Cup have already become TV productions and are even financed with resources from the information industry.
It is no longer possible to imagine events large or small without the mediation of cameras, the interpreters par excellence of these postmodern or pre-apocalyptic times. They are present in every zone of conflict on the planet, carried by legions of photographers, cameramen and 'videomakers', who make up a crowd apart, acting on behalf of that other crowd, the indirect spectators who stay at home.
This mediation, however, is not usually made evident in the images we consume daily in magazines, newspapers or TV programs. The camera always remains outside its own frame, hidden in the reverse shot of the space it makes visible. And since it cannot include itself in the represented scene, the work (arduous, difficult, full of contradictions) of producing the image almost always remains invisible, when not repressed, in ordinary journalistic practice.
The main interest of Pedro Martinelli's photo exhibition, besides its more specifically photographic qualities, lies in bringing into the frame this invisible place where the image is produced, as well as the crowd that inhabits it. Turning the spectacle inside out, Martinelli's camera frequently turns away from the Mexican pitch and the plays that take place there, to cast an ironic gaze on his own peers. Suddenly, in the place where the football stars or the frenzy of the fans should be celebrated, there appears the inglorious landscape of the information workers, busy connecting the event to the planet.
A curious exercise in photographic metalanguage, Martinelli's work reveals a self-reflexive concern that ought to be more widespread among our 'cameramen'."
Arlindo Machado
Machado, Arlindo. [texto]. In: Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 17 ago. 1986. Esportes, p. 43.
Collections
Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection - São Paulo SP
Solo Exhibitions
2004 - São Paulo SP - Pedro Martinelli, at Memorial da América Latina
Group Exhibitions
1972 - Cologne (Germany) - Fotokina
1976 - São Paulo SP - SP76, at Masp
1977 - Hungary - International Exhibition of Photography Woman 77
1978 - São Paulo SP - Receives the best cover and best report awards, Prêmio Abril
1979 - São Paulo SP - Receives the best report and best color photo awards, Prêmio Abril
1979 - São Paulo SP - Os Fotógrafos de Veja [The Photographers of Veja], at Galeria Fotoptica
1979 - Paraná - Os Fotógrafos de Veja [The Photographers of Veja], at Universidade do Paraná
1979 - São Paulo SP - Brás - Uma Documentação Fotográfica [Brás - A Photographic Documentation], with Cristiano Mascaro, at MIS/SP
1979 - Paraná - A Guerra na Nicarágua [The War in Nicaragua], at Universidade do Paraná
1980 - Tokyo (Japan) - Receives an honorable mention at the Nikon Photo Contest International
1980 - São Paulo SP - 1ª Trienal de Fotografia [1st Photography Triennial], at MAM/SP
1985 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo, at CCSP
1986 - São Paulo SP - O Fotógrafo na Copa [The Photographer at the World Cup], at Galeria Fotoptica
1991 - São Paulo SP - 100 Anos de Avenida Paulista [100 Years of Avenida Paulista], at Masp
1994 - São Paulo SP - 4ª Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [4th Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection], at Masp
1995 - São Paulo SP - Contatos e Confrontos: o índio e o branco [Contacts and Confrontations: The Indigenous and the White Man], at MIS/SP
1996 - São Paulo SP - Palafitas da Amazônia [Amazon Stilt Houses], at Espaço Cultural City Bank
1996 - Caracas (Venezuela) - Imágenes de Brasil. Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [Images of Brazil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection], at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber
1996 - Bogotá (Colombia) - Imágenes de Brasil. Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [Images of Brazil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection], at Casa do Brasil
1996 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Imágenes de Brasil. Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [Images of Brazil. Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection], at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
1998 - São Paulo SP - Os Panará [The Panará], at Sesc Pompeia
1998 - São Paulo SP - Casas Paulistanas - Pequenos Tesouros da Mooca na Transformação de São Paulo [São Paulo Houses - Small Treasures of Mooca in the Transformation of São Paulo], at Saraiva Music Hall
1998 - São Paulo SP - Amazônicas [Amazonian Women], at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Imagem do Som de Caetano Veloso [The Image of the Sound of Caetano Veloso], at Paço Imperial
2000 - Belém PA - Arte Pará 2000, at Galeria da Residência
Source: Itaú Cultural
