Esteban Pastorino Díaz: “I wanted to create an ambiguous image that resembles the way we look at the scale models but which is actually a photograph of the real world. The main technical points that I defined for that were: the apparent short deep of field in the images, and the high point of view from which the images would be taken. The first effect is given by tilting the lens in relation to the film. For that I constructed a cardboard camera which has the lens in that position and fixed focus. To reach a high point of view, I use a kite that lifts the camera between sixty and four hundred feet up into the air.

Selected by Patricia Gouvea on May 31, 2010

Isabela Lira: “This series – Sobremim (“About Me”) – has originated from a connection between my image and my hair. I noticed there was a connection between people’s perception and the colour of my hair, that generated almost an identity. Its red hue, very characteristic, became a reference of my own image. From that connection, I started to develop a series of work having my hair as the main focus. An instigating hair, invasive, which appropriated my identity. Hair that frames the face. And does it so much that it finally takes it, becoming my identity, a unique body, capillary.

Selected by Patricia Gouvea on May 30, 2010

The series Love Story presents images that are a result of years of research on the impermanence and the affective relationships. A transitory instantaneous diary, using elements from nature and situations of daily life to talk about the several facets of love relationships. Eternal loves, disposable loves, finite and infinite, conflicts, separations and mismatches are part of this panel represented in a simple, metaphoric and poetic manner.

Selected by Patricia Gouvea on May 29, 2010

Daniele Dacorso: “I have been photographing “Baile Funk” parties in favelas (slums) and suburbs of Rio de Janeiro for ten years now. Baile Funk music mixes American funk from the 70’s with samba rhythms and contemporary rap and the lyrics commonly make explicit references to sex, drugs and violence. As an observer of Baile Funk, I have always been fascinated by the choreographies, the catharsis and the seduction games between boys and girls, the audience and the artists on stage and the way they mix sex and humour into lyrics and dance.”

Selected by Patricia Gouvea on May 28, 2010

Located around a few squares of the Estácio District, next to the Sambódromo, Baixo Estácio is a region that remained from the old Praça Onze (Eleven Square) with an architecture that dates back to the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. This district maintains a position of unquestionable leadership because three of the most important events that, until today, retain an extraordinary influence on the daily lives of the people of Rio de Janeiro. took place there: 1. The creation of the first Samba School – by the musician Ismael Silva, a grandson of slaves; 2. The expansion of the African-Brazilian religions – umbanda, quimbanda and candomblé; and 3. The invention of the carnival-type samba (or carioca samba) by the same group of Ismael Silva.

Selected by Patricia Gouvea on May 27, 2010

Jo started making images of empty porn sets in 2001, whilst at the Royal College of Art, funding the work and her education by employment as a cleaner at the porn studio. When all was quiet and the bodies had gone home she would photograph the aftermath of the day’s shoots. The resulting works have a stillness to them in complete contrast to the frenetic industry of which they are the traces. These are playgrounds of cheapish fantasy, which are left like historical documents to the sex act.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 26, 2010

Since early times, we have a custom to enjoy watching flying firefly in darkness from June to July in Japan. The emission of light is a breeding act which is also a sign of the courtship. All the people watching the “light of the love” are smiling. There will be a light of warm love in their hearts. I capture the dance of the light with my camera and bring this home. Then it reappears on paper in the darkroom.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 25, 2010

“There’s something wonderful about seeing an object that you never even consider – an everyday, plastic bag – turned into something beautiful and poetic, but that’s what Ira has done, with his “Plastic Bags” series. That’s one of the great objectives of art, for me – to make you reconsider the ordinary in the light of the extraordinary.”

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 24, 2010

On “Brixton People,” by Carole Evans: Evans’ work reminds me of August Sander’s “People of the 20th Century.” Sander photographed a series of portraits that aims at showing a cross-section of society during the Weimar Republic. Brixton People is tributary to Sander’s work. It also stands out on its own as a strong work of contemporary documentary photography. Evans takes a lighthearted tone, which makes the portraits very inviting to look at.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 23, 2010

Yagi’s documentation of the Eskimo and Aleut is beautiful to look at. He works in a manner that has completely disappeared in my part of the world, photographing on 8 by 10 inch sheet film – the size of a magazine page – and printing them on hand coated paper. This method is a perfect mirror for the subject matter of this work, the disappearing cultures of the Northern native people. It results in a body of work that is both beautiful and sad to look at, as it underlines the fact that the developments described in Yagi’s project statement are irreversible and picking up speed. Viewing these photographs feels like looking at the past, while, in fact, we are looking at a disappearing present.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 22, 2010