Participant of the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009, and winner of several awards such as the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography and the Award Marcantonio Vilaça, Luiz Braga develops a work that is a kind of photographic diary of the landscape and life of the Amazon, especially focusing on the apprehension of the everyday and symbolic living of its inhabitants as well as the contrasts and intersections between the human, the architectural and the natural landscape. By conceiving a body of work that is located in–between an quasi-anthropological documentary and an “abstractive” photography, Braga continuously bypasses the stereotypical and superficial views and discourses that are frequently created and promoted about the Amazon and its people.

 

One of artist’s main strategies to avoid a predictable apprehension of that reality is the way he captures the characteristic light of the equatorial sun and the chromatic nuances recreate the urban environment of the ports, fairs and peripheral districts of the Amazonian cities. This personal method is very different from the soft, idyllic light of the tropics that seems to illuminate the disseminated ideas and images about the region. The artist’s extensive research about the chromatic possibilities that emerge from the conflict between natural and artificial light has allowed him to create settings punctured by hues and tones that are intense and vigorous.

 

His work integrates collections such as: Pérez Art Museum, Miami, USA; Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Boston, USA; Statoil Art Collection, Oslo, Norway; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Brazil; MAC/USP, São Paulo, Brazil; MASP (Pirelli Collection/MASP of Photography), São Paulo, Brazil; Modern Art Museum of São Paulo - MAM, Sao Paulo, Brazil, among others.