Thomaz Farkas (Budapeste, Hungria 1924 - São Paulo SP 2011)
Photographer, teacher, film producer and director.
Thomaz Jorge Farkas emigrates with his family to São Paulo in 1930, where his father is a founding partner of Fotoptica, one of the first photographic equipment stores in Brazil. He joins the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB) in 1942 and begins to exhibit in national and international salons. Through imported books and magazines, he discovers the work of Edward Weston (1886-1964) and Ansel Adams (1902-1984), two leading figures of modern American photography. In the 1940s, he photographs ballet companies, sports, landscapes and scenes of everyday urban life in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1949 he holds the solo exhibition Estudos Fotográficos [Photographic Studies] at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM/SP), and seven of his images enter the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 1950, with Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998), he designs the photography laboratory at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (Masp), where he teaches the following year. At the same time, he experiments with cinema, frequents the studios of the Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz, in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, and begins a correspondence with the Dutch documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens (1898-1989). He graduates in mechanical and electrical engineering from the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (Poli/USP) in 1953. From 1957 to 1960, he photographs the construction and inauguration of Brasília. After his father's death in 1960, he takes over the management of Fotoptica, a position he holds until 1997.
Between 1964 and 1972, he works as producer, sponsor and sometimes film director and cinematographer of documentaries on folk culture in the Brazilian interior, in the project known as the Caravana Farkas [Farkas Caravan], which brings together filmmakers such as Eduardo Escorel (1945), Maurice Capovilla (1936 - 2021), Paulo Gil Soares (1935), Geraldo Sarno (1938 - 2022) and the cinematographer Affonso Beato (1941). The films win awards at festivals in Brazil and abroad and become a reference for Brazilian cinema. In 1969, he begins teaching photography in the Film and Journalism Departments of the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo (ECA/USP), where he writes a doctoral thesis on the methods used to make his documentaries. He launches the magazine Fotoptica in 1970, featuring essays by Brazilian and international photographers, and in 1979 opens the Galeria Fotoptica, a pioneer in exhibiting and selling photography in the country. From 1990, he sits on the Advisory Board of the Pirelli Masp Photography Collection. In 1993 he becomes director of the Cinemateca Brasileira de São Paulo. In 1997, he publishes the book Thomaz Farkas, Fotógrafo [Thomaz Farkas, Photographer] and holds an exhibition of the same name at Masp, with works from the 1940s and 1950s. In 2005, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (Pesp) opens the exhibition Brasil e Brasileiros no Olhar de Thomaz Farkas [Brazil and Brazilians through the Eyes of Thomaz Farkas], which shows for the first time color images taken in the 1960s and 1970s. The following year, some of these photographs are gathered in the book Thomaz Farkas, Notas de Viagem [Thomaz Farkas, Travel Notes].
Critical Commentary
Together with Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998) and German Lorca (1922 - 2021), Thomaz Farkas is considered a pioneer of modern photography in Brazil. His images from the 1940s and 1950s are identified with the visual language developed by the European and American avant-gardes in the first decades of the 20th century: unusual angles, close-ups, serial elements and geometric compositions. Modern artists want to show that photography is not merely a mirror of reality, but also a technique that offers another way of seeing the world. Framing, plays of light and high and low viewpoints depart from conventional perception and sometimes bring photography close to abstract painting.
In 1942, Thomaz Farkas joins the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB), where the debates focus on making photography a work of art through the creative exploration of purely photographic means, no longer through pictorialism. The defense of an aesthetic specific to photography is a central issue for Straight Photography, an American movement whose main representatives - Paul Strand (1890-1976), Edward Weston (1886-1964) and Ansel Adams (1902-1984) - are important references for Farkas.
Almost always in black and white, his images combine formal research and historical testimony. The variety of subjects reveals his interest in the visual aspects of his daily surroundings and, consequently, in everyday life in urban centers such as São Paulo, where the artist lives, and Rio de Janeiro, which he visits frequently.
His street photographs show how people dress and behave in public spaces without neglecting framing and the rhythmic arrangement of forms. He records people going about their daily tasks and at leisure: the shoeshine boy at work, the man in front of a newsstand, the bustle of shopping streets, children playing and football fans at the Pacaembu Stadium, in São Paulo. He also documents emblematic moments, such as São Paulo residents celebrating the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) and, in the 1950s, the construction and inauguration of Brasília.
In the same period, he photographs sports scenes and Brazilian and international dance companies. In these examples, one notices his interest in the outline of bodies against the light and in movement that is sometimes frozen, sometimes blurred. In the ballet images, his attention turns to the dancers' daily routine, almost always portrayed backstage. In the rehearsals, he seeks to reconcile the recording of action with the balance of the frame, showing the bodies in an orderly way so that they do not merge into one another.
In the 1940s, Farkas is attentive to the transformation of the urban landscape, focusing on the modern architecture that begins to gain momentum in downtown São Paulo. Within his body of work, the details of buildings are the images closest to the constructive art in vogue in Brazil in the 1950s. The results look like geometric abstractions, yet the referent can almost always be recognized in them.
In his photographs of the construction of Brazil's capital, the artist combines social documentation with formalism. Among iron structures photographed with the precision and balance of a Concrete painting, he almost always includes the figure of a worker. Focused on daily life, besides the buildings under construction, he records the living conditions of the workers and their families, their precarious housing and the commerce that springs up around the city, the icon of the country's modernization.
The snapshots of the inauguration, showing people alongside President Juscelino Kubitschek (1902-1976) and walking on top of the National Congress building, convey the developmentalist ideology and the belief, common at the time, that rural, archaic Brazil would finally be reconciled with its modern, industrialized face.
Farkas never becomes a professional photojournalist, but his collected work shows that he rarely lets the documentary function of photography take second place. In the 1960s and 1970s, the artist turns to the Brazilian interior, and the emphasis of his film work becomes social. The aim of the films is to make known aspects of the folk culture of the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and of cities in the North and Northeast, which at the time remain unknown in other regions.
The productions of the Caravana Farkas have an educational intent, as they are made to be shown in schools. Self-financed and often shot with a handheld camera and direct sound, the films combine ethnography and improvisation and, for this reason, are regarded by some critics as the documentary version of Cinema Novo.
In 2005, Farkas shows for the first time a series of color photographs taken in 1975 during a scientific expedition to the Rio Negro, in Amazonas, and in Salvador. These travel records stand out above all for their descriptive, ethnographic character and once again reveal his attentive eye for cultural particularities, ways of life and work. He does not look for spectacular situations; he seeks to capture the atmosphere of the places visited and favors the natural tones of each scene.
Critiques
"Thomaz Farkas first sought a means of expression at the Foto Clube Bandeirante, but he gradually found his own path and produced a consistent photographic oeuvre. His pronounced geometric forms, his strange viewing angles breaking the silence of forms and his thought-provoking aesthetic vision point to one of the most innovative experiences in Brazilian photography."
Rubens Fernandes Junior
FERNANDES JÚNIOR, Rubens. Thomaz Farkas e José Medeiros, modernos e eternos. Texto datilografado.
"I search my memory and try to bring into focus a word or image that defines the work and personality of Thomaz Farkas. Offhand, I could honor him as one of the most important Brazilian photographers, or as a tireless producer who made possible the ideas and projects of a generation of filmmakers, not forgetting the publisher of photography publications. Farkas is a bit of all this and much more, a multiple artist, to be viewed from various angles, since he is one of the most dynamic driving forces of the contemporary Brazilian visual scene. Through his lenses passed the beauties and realities of the Sertão and the Recôncavo of Bahia, of Rio's samba, and so many other subjects in which Brazil and its people are seen whole. Farkas is a hunter of images of this and other lands, those the ordinary eye cannot reach. Limpid, luminous and sometimes raw, they make the viewer reconsider his position in the cinema seat or in life."
Sérgio Sanz
SANZ, Sérgio. Vasculhando a memória. In: A CARAVANA Farkas: documentário - 1964/1980. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, 1997. p. 43.
Collections
Acervo Banco Itaú - São Paulo SP
Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografia - São Paulo SP
Coleção Thomaz Farkas, Acervo Instituto Moreira Salles - São Paulo SP
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - Nova York (Estados Unidos)
Solo Exhibitions
1948 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
1949 - São Paulo SP - Estudos Fotográficos [Photographic Studies], Museu de Arte Moderna
1997 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
1998 - Havana (Cuba) - Solo, Galeria Cine Charles Chaplin
1998 - Paraty RJ - Thomaz Farkas, fotógrafo [Thomaz Farkas, Photographer], Casa da Cultura de Paraty
1999 - São Paulo SP - Thomaz Farkas: 39 Anos de Fotografia, 20 Anos de Galeria [Thomaz Farkas: 39 Years of Photography, 20 Years of the Gallery], at Galeria ADG. Sala Thomaz Farkas
2000 - Paris (France) - Le Brésil brésilien, Galerie Debret
2000 - São Paulo SP - Retorno ao Fotoclube [Return to the Photo Club], Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante
2001 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Senac
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Thomaz Farkas: fotografias Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo e Brasília [Thomaz Farkas: Photographs of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília], Instituto Moreira Salles
2002 - São Paulo SP - Thomaz Farkas: fotografias e lembranças [Thomaz Farkas: Photographs and Memories], Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2003 - Salvador BA - As Jornadas que Eu Vi [The Journeys I Saw], Galeria ACBEU
2004 - São Paulo SP - Solo, Museu da Imagem e do Som
2005 - São Paulo SP - Brasil e Brasileiros no Olhar de Thomaz Farkas: fotografias [Brazil and Brazilians through the Eyes of Thomaz Farkas: Photographs], Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
2010 - Salvador BA - Thomaz Farkas - O Tempo Dissolvido [Thomaz Farkas - Dissolved Time], Museu de Arte Moderna
2011 - São Paulo SP - Thomaz Farkas: uma antologia pessoal [Thomaz Farkas: A Personal Anthology], Instituto Moreira Salles
Group Exhibitions
1942 - São Paulo SP - 1st São Paulo Salon of Modern Art - honorable mention
1943 - São Paulo SP - 2nd São Paulo Salon of Photographic Art, Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante - second prize
1970 - São Paulo SP - 1st Photojournalism Exhibition, ECA/USP
1994 - Curitiba PR - 4th Curitiba City Photography Week
1996 - São Paulo SP - 6th Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
1997 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - A Caravana Farkas: documentário - 1964/1980 [The Farkas Caravan: Documentary - 1964/1980], at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
1998 - Nantes (France) - Jogadas: conduites de balle
1998 - Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France) - Jogadas: conduites de balle, Centre Régional de la Photographie - Nord Pas-de-Calais
1998 - São Paulo SP - Jogadas: conduites de balle, Casa da Fotografia Fuji
1999 - Campinas SP - Tendências da Fotografia Contemporânea [Trends in Contemporary Photography], Itaú Cultural
1999 - São João da Boa Vista SP - 2nd Fernando Furlanetto Photography Week, Teatro Municipal
1999 - Wolfsburg (Germany) - Brasilianische Fotografie 1946 bis 1998 [Brazilian Photography 1946 to 1998], Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
2000 - São Paulo SP - Fotografia Documental [Documentary Photography], Casa da Fotografia Fuji
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Realidades Construídas: do pictorialismo à fotografia moderna [Constructed Realities: From Pictorialism to Modern Photography], Itaú Cultural
2001 - Campinas SP - Realidades Construídas: do pictorialismo à fotografia moderna [Constructed Realities: From Pictorialism to Modern Photography], Itaú Cultural
2002 - São Paulo SP - 11th Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection, Museu de Arte de São Paulo
2002 - São Paulo SP - Arte e Futebol [Art and Football], MAM Higienópolis
2002 - São Paulo SP - Cidadeprojeto / cidadeexperiência [Cityproject / Cityexperience], Espaço MAM - Villa-Lobos
2002 - São Paulo SP - Group show, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2002 - São Paulo SP - Fotografias no Acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo [Photographs in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo], Museu de Arte Moderna
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], Oca
2003 - Mexico City (Mexico) - Cuasi Corpus: arte concreto y neoconcreto de Brasil: una selección del acervo del Museo de Arte Moderno de São Paulo y la Colección Adolpho Leirner [Quasi Corpus: Concrete and Neo-Concrete Art from Brazil: A Selection from the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and the Adolpho Leirner Collection], Museo Rufino Tamayo
2003 - Curitiba PR - Imagética, Museu da Fotografia Cidade de Curitiba
2003 - São Paulo SP - Labirintos e Identidades: a fotografia no Brasil de 1945 a 1998 [Labyrinths and Identities: Photography in Brazil from 1945 to 1998], Centro Universitário Maria Antonia
2004 - Porto Alegre RS - Olho Vivo: a arte da fotografia [Sharp Eye: The Art of Photography], Santander Cultural
2004 - São Paulo SP - Fotografia e Escultura no Acervo do MAM - 1995 a 2004 [Photography and Sculpture in the MAM Collection - 1995 to 2004], Museu de Arte Moderna
2004 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo 450 Anos: a imagem e a memória da cidade no acervo do Instituto Moreira Salles [São Paulo 450 Years: The Image and Memory of the City in the Instituto Moreira Salles Collection], Centro Cultural Fiesp
2004 - São Paulo SP - Cinqüenta 50 [Fifty 50], Museu de Arte Moderna
2005 - Nice (France) - Septembre de la Photo 2005: Aspect de la Photographie Brésilienne, Théâtre de la Photographie et de l'Image
2005 - São Paulo SP - 15th Porto Seguro Photography Prize, Espaço Porto Seguro de Fotografia
2006 - Liège (Belgium) - 5th Biennale Internationale de la Photographie et des Arts Visuels de Liège Brasil, Centre Culturel Les Chiroux
2006 - São Paulo SP - MAM na Oca [MAM at the Oca], Oca
2006 - São Paulo SP - Veracidade [Veracity], Museu de Arte Moderna
2007 - São Paulo SP - Fragmentos: modernismo na fotografia brasileira [Fragments: Modernism in Brazilian Photography], Galeria Bergamin
2007 - Uberlândia MG - Veracidade: fotografias do acervo do MAM [Veracity: Photographs from the MAM Collection], Museu Universitário de Arte
2008 - São Paulo SP - Arte Pela Amazônia: arte e atitude [Art for the Amazon: Art and Attitude], Fundação Bienal
2008 - São Paulo SP - MAM 60, Oca
2009 - Brasília DF - 30 Anos de Fotografia [30 Years of Photography], Caixa Cultural. Galeria Vitrine
2009 - Salvador BA - 30 Anos de Fotografia [30 Years of Photography], Caixa Cultural
2009 - São Paulo SP - 30 Anos de Fotografia [30 Years of Photography], Caixa Cultural
2009 - São Paulo SP - Panorama Atual da Fotografia [Current Panorama of Photography], Valu Oria Galeria de Arte
2009 - São Paulo SP - 3rd SP-Arte/Foto, Shopping Iguatemi
2010 - Belo Horizonte MG - Moderna Para Sempre - Fotografia Modernista Brasileira na Coleção Itaú [Modern Forever - Brazilian Modernist Photography in the Itaú Collection], Centro de Arte Contemporânea e Fotografia
2010 - Porto Alegre RS - Moderna Para Sempre - Fotografia Modernista Brasileira na Coleção Itaú [Modern Forever - Brazilian Modernist Photography in the Itaú Collection], Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli
2010 - São Paulo SP - Dez Anos do Clube de Colecionadores de Fotografia do MAM [Ten Years of the MAM Photography Collectors Club], Museu de Arte Moderna
2010 - São Paulo SP - O Futebol no Acervo do Instituto Moreira Salles [Football in the Instituto Moreira Salles Collection], Galeria IMS - Unibanco Arteplex
2010 - São Paulo SP - 6th SP-Arte, Fundação Bienal
2010 - São Paulo SP - 4th SP-Arte/Foto, Shopping Iguatemi
2011 - São Paulo SP - Ordem e Progresso: vontade construtiva na arte brasileira [Order and Progress: The Constructive Will in Brazilian Art], Museu de Arte Moderna
Source: Itaú Cultural
