Yesterday I attended at São Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art, the launch of ”Revista Zum”, Brazil’s prestigious photography journal. Published by Instituto Moreira Salles, its tenth edition presents articles and essays by Brazilian and international photographers and scholars. 

At the launch, Japanese-born photographer working in São Paulo Tatewaki Nio showed his documentation of buildings designed by Freddy Mamani in El Alto, a suburb of La Paz, Bolivia.  German photographer Michael Wesely talked about his long-exposure photographs (some of which over a year) of Berlin landmarks, such as Potsdamer Platz, during their renovation work. The seminar was mediated by Guilherme Wisnik, professor of Art History at São Paulo University’s School of Architecture and Urbanism.

Through different approaches, both artists deal with the passage of time, as well light and form in Photography. Light and form is also the theme of my article in the journal on Brazilian entomologist and photographer José Oiticica Filho, active in the 1950s. 

Thyago Nogueira, editor of Zum, opens the Seminar.

Michael Wesely, Guilherme Wisnik and Tatewaki Nio. In the background, an image of Potsdamer Platz.

Michael Wesely shows an image of his Berliner Schloss series.

One of Wesely’s custom-built cameras.

A camera installed over Leipziger Strasse, Berlin.

One of Nio’s São Paulo series photograph.

Rio’s photograph of a building in El Alto, Bolivia.

An image is worth more than a thousand words.