About me


I have been a photographer since the age of fifteen, when I got my first camera, a Voigtländer that used 126 format film. My archive currently has over 50,000 images taken in various parts of the world: Brazil, South America, Asia, Europe and USA.

Some of these images are shown here.


Education

I have a Ph.D. in Social History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, with a thesis on German photographer George Huebner’s (1862-1935) early 20th century work in the Amazon.

My M.A. was at Universidade Federal Fluminense and my B.A. in Art History and Cinema at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, USA.
Since August 2022 I am a visiting professor of Photography and Art History at New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE>

In 2014/2015 I did post-doctoral work at Freie Universität Berlin / Art History Institute researching Brazilian and German photography in the 1950s.


Experience

I studied and collaborated with Brazilian avant-garde artist Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980). In the 1970’s I produced experimental films. Between 1980 and 2000 I photographed and researched in the Amazon. I have written three books on the Amazon Parintins Boi-bumbá Festival and worked as a production and direction assistant in Werner Herzog’s film “Fitzcarraldo”.

I published the books “SAARA Rio de Janeiro” (2010), “Fotocine: a fotografia no cinema” (2011) and “A fotografia amazônica de George Huebner” (2012). I organised the book “Call me Helium” (2014). My most recent book, "Berlin<>Rio: Routes and Memories", was published in Berlin in April 2018.

I am a member of the Brazilian Anthropology Association and in 2004 won its Pierre Verger Photography prize. 

I am a photographer, researcher and writer and have held various one-man exhibits throughout Brazil, participated in group exhibits and work as a curator. 

In 2016 I won the Marc Ferrez photography prize from the Brazilian National Art Foundation for the "Berlin<>Rio: Routes and Memories" project on exhibit in Berlin's Haus am Kleistpark until August 12th 2018.

Using Format