MIGUEL RIO BRANCO

Miguel Rio Branco was a freelance photographer and director of photography for movies when he embarked on documentary photography and was soon noticed for the dramatic quality of his color work. In 1980 he became an associate of Magnum Photos. Fascinated by places of strong contrast, the power of tropical colors and light, he made Brazil his main area of exploration. In 1985 , he published Dulce Sudor Amargo, a book in which he drew a parallel between the sensual, vital side of Salvador da Bahia and the historical side of the city, which at the time (1919) was inhabited by prostitutes and the fringe elements of society. It is an essay on life and death, on the scars left behind by time and by living.

His book Entre os Olhos o Deserto demonstrates an evolution towards a hybrid form using photography and video images extracted from his experimental films. Similary, his exhibitions functions as installations, a concept that is crucial to his work, so that without neglecting the importance of the single image, creating a discourse through images is the final aim.