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.
Author(s): David William Foster
Series: Latinx and Latin American Profiles
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 247
City: Pittsburgh
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
