Imagens do Povo: Visual narratives from the favelas – towards a new city.
Aruan Braga and Bira Carvalho with photographs by members of the Imagens do Povo.
Imagens do Povo is a photography collective located in Nova Holanda, a favela in Rio de Janeiro that aims to democratize access to photographic language and values the histories and cultural practices of favela communities.
Photographs by: Marcia Farias; Bira Carvalho; Francisco Valdean; Rosilene Miliotto; Patrick Mendes; veri-vg; Davi Marcos
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”4″ display=”basic_slideshow” arrows=”1″ transition_style=”slide”]Imagens do Povo is a node for training, networking and support into the job market. It develops actions across education, communication and art. The photographers record the daily life of favelas, using a critical perspective that takes into account human rights, culture and place. Through the use of photographic language, photographers and communities rescue and strengthen their identity ties, mapping different cultural expressions of the places where they live. The images are 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. But Imagens do Povo affirm these informal urban settlements as central to the city, not only geographically but also culturally, as legitimate expressions of lifestyles that have the power to revolutionise the city and overcome its inequalities and socio-spatial hierarchies. Imagens do Povo affirm the favela as central to creating and expanding the material and symbolic contemporary city. Full Photo-essay in CITY’s re-launch issue: Braga, A. and Carvalho, B., 2020. Imagens do Povo: Visual narratives from the favelas towards a new city. City, 24(1-2), pp.364-375.
Imagens do Povo is now documenting the Covid-19 crisis
“This social distancing is accompanied by situations of tension, sadness and melancholy caused by unexpectedly abruption. You have to reinvent life every day. Taking care of our own and others is also creating sociabilities that bring us closer. It is no coincidence that when looking inside the house reveals women as protagonists of the act of caring, protecting and demanding dignity for our lives. Looking inside our homes is to give sense of the relationships that are rebuilt in the protection and care relationships necessary to face the brutality of inequality aggravated with a pandemic. So we should better understand the meaning of living how to take care of ourselves and others. And with that, we expand our struggles.”
Imagens Do Povo. 2020. Website. http://www.imagensdopovo.org.br/
Editor: Debbie Humphry http://www.debbiehumphry.com
10.06.2020
