Imagens do Povo

Abstract

Imagens do Povo (Images of the People) is a photography collective located in Nova Holanda, a favela in Rio de Janeiro that aims to democratise access to photographic language. It is a node for training, networking and the insertion of popular photographers into the job market, developing actions across education, communication and art. Its focus is on promoting documentary photographers whose work values the histories and cultural practices of favela communities. The programme combines photographic technique with social issues, recording the daily life of favelas, using a critical perspective that takes into account human rights, culture and place. In this process, photographers and communities rescue and strengthen their identity ties through the use of photographic language, which becomes an instrument for accessing and mapping different cultural expressions of the places where they live. The collective’s politicised and humanist photographic practice produces images of powerful, joyous and creative favelas; contrasting with dominant representations of favelas as spaces of need and violence. Favelas are also often regarded as peripheral in the mass media and collective imagination, contributing to their marginalisation and exclusion. However, favelas are often located within the centre of the city and Imagens do Povo present these informal urban settlements as much more than a response to housing demand; representing them as legitimate expressions of lifestyles that have the power to revolutionise the city and overcome its inequalities and socio-spatial hierarchies. Therefore, Imagens do Povo affirm the periphery as the centre and create, develop and expand, both materially and symbolically, the contemporary city.

Keywords:

• Rio de Janeiro
• favela
• photography
• collective
• informal settlement
• periphery—centre

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Sara García Menéndez and Aruan Braga who helped with the translation, to Cecilia Dinardi for her support with communication across languages and countries, and again to Aruan Braga, who coordinated in collecting together the images and text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Marcia Farias is a photographer trained at the School of Popular Photographers (Escola de Fotógrafos Populares) in 2009. She has worked as a photographer and was responsible for the archiving of images at the Viva Rio Institution from 2009 to 2011. She participated in the collective expositions A Maré do seu Tom (2007), Caçadores de Sonhos (2009) and Viva Favela 10 Anos (2011). Farias also administered photography classes for the Wikimaps project and Curta Favela in 2010. She hosted the individual exposition XINGU escritas visuais de Marcia Farias, on display at Gallery 535 at the Observatório de Favelas (2017).

Francisco Valdean has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). He works in image database administration for the Imagens do Povo project at the Observatório de Favelas. He is currently conducting research on the representation of the favelas of Maré in the photographic language of photojournalism and documentation, associated with the postgraduate program in social sciences at UERJ.

Davi Marcos was interested in images as a child, both fixed and moving. His father was an amateur photographer and had a friend who was a social events photographer. He graduated as a documentary photographer from ESPOCC - the Favela Observatory Popular School of Critical Communication - in 2007. He helped write the script of Let It Fly by 5X Favela and has participated in several exhibitions, in Brazil and abroad. He has been a photography and audiovisual instructor, including in prisons.

Rosilene Miliotti is a photographer trained at the School of Popular Photographers (Escola de Fotógrafos Populares) in 2007, and attended the Popular School of Critical Communication (Escola Popular de Comunicação Crítica, ESPOCC) at the Observatório de Favelas. She holds a degree in Social Communication and Journalism, and attends a postgraduate program in Digital Media Management. She currently works as a journalist at Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré, and develops press consultancy projects for digital media.

Patrick Mendes was born and raised in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, in the Maré Favela Complex. He is twenty-one years old and has developed a habit of taking photographs on his own since adolescence. He graduated in photography at the Olhares da Maré Film School (ECOM) / Redes da Maré, and as a photo-journalist at Agência Narra, a Favelas Observatory project. His gaze is influenced by the favelas of the state of Rio de Janeiro, which he developed working for Ponte de Jornalismo.

veri-vg, 48, lives in the Maré Favela Complex and graduated from the School of Popular Photographers. He has taken photographs for the Favela Observatory, NETWORKS, Pagina Magazine, TEDxMARE, Rio Gay Film Festival, Canal Arté, Rio Parada Funk, FLUPP, International Circus Festival, Favela Museum, Viva Favela and Travessias. He has participated in the following photographic exhibitions: In the Web of Memory; Folia of Images; Crossings-Contemporary Art in Maré; FotoRio 2015 “Ser Carioca da Rua”; WE; Sundays of sun; Between Tide and German: Daily Visual Reports.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aruan Braga

Aruan Braga is Director of The Observatório de Favelas. Email: [email protected]

Bira Carvalho

Bira Carvalho is the lead organiser of Imagens Do Povo. He is a photographer trained at the School of Popular Photographers and a ‘rueiro’—a street lover. He likes to hang out on Nova Holanda’s main street, using it as his photographic inspiration. He holds a degree in audiovisual technology from the Popular School of Critical Communication (ESPOCC), as well as in conflict mediation from the Getúlio Vargas foundation. Email: [email protected]