The City as Photographic Text: Urban Documentary Photography of São Paulo

Description

The City as Photographic Text offers the first comprehensive presentation of photography on São Paulo. But more than just a study of one city’s photographic legacy, this book is a manual for how to understand and talk about Latin American photography in general. Focusing on major figures and referencing widely available books of their work, David William Foster offers a unique analysis of how photographers have contributed to our understanding of the megalopolis São Paulo has become. Eschewing a conventional historical approach, Foster explores how best to interpret visual urban life. In turn, by focusing interest on the photographic text and the ways in which it creates an interpretive meaning for the city, rather than rehearsing the circumstances under which the photographs were taken, this study provides a model for productive comment on urban photography as a project of visual meaning with important artistic attributes. As a unique entry in the inventory of scholarly writing on São Paulo, The City as Photographic Text adds to our understanding of the enormous cultural significance this city holds as a world-class urban center. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: Modernist Discoveries 1. Hildegard Rosenthal Discovers Brazilian Modernity 2. The Factory Floor as Urban Plaza in Hans Günter Flieg’s Photography of Industrial São Paulo 3. Thomaz Farkas and the Estádio de Pacaembu: A Theater of Brazilian Male Homosociality Part Two: Shifting Perspectives 4. Above the Madding Crowd: Cássio Vasconcellos’s Aerial São Paulo 5. Urban Dynamics: Four Photographers The Urban Panoramic of Juca Martins Mauro Restiffe and Fading São Paulo Ana Lucia Mariz and the Hidden Ruins of São Paulo The Provincial Photography of Cristiano Mascaro 6. The Problematic Vernacular Photography of David Drew Zingg Part Three: Megalopolitan Problems 7. Breaches in the Walls: Carlos Cazalis Photographs São Paulo 8. Unhiding Urban Madness: The Asylum Photographs of Claudio Edinger Part Four: Living São Paulo 9. Humanity in the Megalopolis: Affective Photography Alice Brill Lily Sverner 10. Loving the Cancerous Body: Valdir Cruz’s Affective Photography Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index